Glimpses into Infinity
by KHGiggle
Summary: Short glimpses into universes that range from happy to sad to horrific to silly. Also will contain omakes. May give birth to full fledged stories as well. First up: How Ratchet became a creator.
1. Chapter 1

_And now Glimpses into Infinity presents the preface._

Vector gave KHGiggle a look of disbelief. "Glimpses into Infinity?"

"It's drabbles that take place in pretty much any universe, including fanfiction ones. Since there is, theoretically, an inifinite number of universes, there are infinite possibilities for stories. I can't come up with every possible story, and I probably won't be able to go into detail with what I come up with, so all you get are glimpses."

"It sounds incredibly pretencious."

KHGiggle gave Vector a look. "You are impossible to please, you know that?"

"It's a part of my job."

"…What sort of horrible job is that?"

"Don't worry about it. Just get onto the legal stuff."

"Right." KHGiggle cleared her throat. "The ideas I write about are either ideas I got from the TF bunny farm, ideas I posted on the bunny farm, random ideas I just came up with, omakes from Butterflies, or some combination of the three. If I get an idea from another person, I will try to credit that person if I can remember who I got the idea from and/or find the idea source."

"And we will not be appearing in most of the chapters since they're usually short," said Vector. "We may occasionally appear in an intermission, but that'll mostly be if we get confused reviews about something KHGiggle wrote."

KHGiggle nodded. "Yep, now the tone of these one shots will range from dramatic to cracky to horrific. It depends on my mood and what I think works in a story. Perhaps if I have the time and inspiration, some of these will become their own stories."

"And updates will likely be sporadic for the most part," finished Vector. "KHGiggle does have a job now, and she can have writer's block for a while. Not to mention she recognizes when her ideas are bad and won't post those. She has some standards."

"Hey!"

"And events may not always be in order when the drabbles take place in the same universe," continued Vector. "This is partly because KHGiggle finds certain scenes easier to write than others and partly because inspiration tends to strike after the fact. If it causes readers confusion, we will go back and rearrange chapters to help you keep track of events."

"And without further ado, let's get started!" said KHGiggle.

_Glimpses into Infinity will now start its feature presentation._


	2. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family I

Ratchet slammed his locker shut. Another day, another set of injuries that were more often than not caused by someone being an idiot.

He has got to find a better job.

It was shortly after he entered his neighborhood that it happened: A yellow sparkling turned the corner at the same time as Ratchet and couldn't stop in time. They collided with a surprised squeak from the sparkling. "Watch where you're going!"

The sparkling drew away, making a scared sound. Ratchet grabbed its servo before it could escape though. He took a closer look. The sparkling was covered in dents, which was odd considering that they didn't collide with each other that hard. "What happened to you?" The sparkling couldn't answer of course, and even if it could, it was too busy trying to get away from Ratchet.

"Will you relax?" Ratchet sat the sparkling down on a wall and swiftly started removing the dents in the sparkling's armor. The sparkling looked down at the repaired armor in surprise before looking at Ratchet like he was the strangest thing it had ever seen. "There, all better. Now run along." The sparkling kept staring at him. Ratchet frowned and made a shooing motion. "Get outta here. Your creators are probably wondering where you are." The sparkling stared for another moment before running off.

Ratchet rolled his optics. Kid's creators needed to keep a closer optic on their creation.

Ratchet would have completely written it off as nothing special if he hadn't run into the sparkling again.


	3. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family II

Ratchet had been walking home when he started to get the feeling that someone was watching him. As a veteran of the Great War who had seen more than he'd wish on anyone, he immediately spun around to confront whoever had decided to tail him.

A familiar yellow sparkling squeaked and ducked behind a sign. "You again?" The sparkling peaked out from behind the sign. It darted back behind the sign when it saw that Ratchet was still looking in its direction. Ratchet huffed and walked over to it. He frowned when he noticed that the sparkling had some new dents. "Honestly, you think your creators would learn after last time…and you should know better than to follow strangers around." The sparkling just kept staring up at Ratchet with scared optics.

Ratchet wasn't one to let a sparkling run around injured so he went and repaired the dents again. The sparkling was silent the whole time. He just stared at Ratchet. "There. Now stop running around so much…"

The sparkling tilted its head before backing up and running away.

Strange kid…

Once again, Ratchet didn't think anything of it. It was strange to run into the same sparkling twice, but it could just be a really precocious sparkling.

Then he ran into the sparkling for a third time.


	4. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family III

This time the sparkling didn't find Ratchet while Ratchet was heading home from work. It was one of Ratchet's solar cycles off, and he had decided to go to Maccadam's.

Ratchet didn't reach the bar.

As Ratchet was debating which way would be the quickest route, he felt something tap his stabilizing servo. Ratchet looked down and wasn't really surprised when he saw a familiar yellow sparkling looking up at him with big optics. "You again?" The sparkling was covered in dents again and was holding its left shoulder. "What on Cybertron are you getting into that you're always dented whenever I see you?" Ratchet knelt down and frowned. "Why are you holding your shoulder?" Ratchet carefully peeled the servo off and took a look. "How the fr-scrap did you dislocate your shoulder?" The sparkling drew back with a scared chir. Ratchet vented a few times to calm down. "That's it. I'm talking to your creators. This has gone on long enough."

But first he had to do something about that dislocated shoulder. He needed some kind of pain killer first though. He picked up the sparkling, who immediately started making distressed chirps and tried to get away. "Relax. I'm just taking you to the clinic I work at so I can give you some pain killers. Believe me. You don't want your servo popped back in without something to dull the pain."

The sparkling settled down, but kept making distressed sounds. It got Ratchet some looks that he promptly ignored.

"Who's this little guy?" asked Solder when Ratchet walked in.

"Beats me. I ran into him on the way to the bar. Kid's got a dislocated shoulder," explained Ratchet.

Solder winced. "Ouch."

"Yeah, I just came here so I could give him some pain medicine before I pop it back in place. Think you could look up his information while I do that? I have no idea where he lives."

"Sure thing." Solder rummaged through a few drawers until he found a spark scanner. He ran it over the sparkling a couple of times. "I'll run him through the database and see if anything pops up."

"Thanks." Ratchet set the sparkling on a free med berth and grabbed some gel that would numb the area it was applied to. Ratchet applied it liberally before popping the arm back into the joint. The sparkling made a startled sound. "There, that wasn't so bad." Ratchet reached out to pat the sparkling's head.

The sparkling shrieked and jerked away while covering its head.

Ratchet froze. What was that?

Solder came over with a datapad while giving the shuddering sparkling an odd look. "Here's his information."

Ratchet took the datapad. He was getting some answers.

Ratchet blinked. The sparkling was nameless. Why hadn't anyone named him?

The sparkling was an orphan and lived in a sparkling home nearby. That still didn't explain the lack of a name.

Then Ratchet found an explanation for the two issues: The sparkling had a Decepticon creator. If the sparkling's Autobot creator hadn't died giving birth to him (Which was more likely than not), he'd been given up.

Ratchet sighed and reached for the sparkling. He didn't screech, but he did flinch when Ratchet started running a servo down the sparkling's back. Eventually the sparkling stopped flinching and started leaning into the touch. "There, that's better. I'm not gonna hurt ya."

Once the sparkling had calmed down, Ratchet tried picking him up. The sparkling tensed up. Ratchet stayed still while he waited for the sparkling to relax. "What do you think of Runner? Not the most creative name, but it definitely fits." The sparkling yawned. "Runner it is then."

Now he had to take care of a few things. "I'll be taking a few solar cycles off Solder."

"Okay, if you say so."


	5. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family IV

Ratchet made his way back to his apartment and put Runner, who was now recharging, on his spare berth. Ratchet covered him with a blanket and placed a few blocks to keep him from accidently rolling off the berth.

Then Ratchet headed for the orphanage. Sparklings, especially orphaned sparklings, were rare enough that orphanages were pretty uncommon and pretty small. Ratchet rapped on the door. A tired looking mech answered. "Yes?"

"Are you missing a sparkling, 'bout this big, yellow, minibot, developing a set of sensor horns?"

"Oh…That one…" Ratchet frowned at the mech's tone. "He's a troublemaker. What did he do?"

"He's less than w decivorns old," deadpanned Ratchet. "He won't get into any more trouble than any sparkling that age. Besides, I just wanted to see if I could get a look at the other sparklings you might have."

"You looking to adopt?"

"I noticed the sparkling was injured. I was worried the other sparklings here might be injured as well."

"Oh. No, that one's just clumsy."

"I'd like to check and see for myself," insisted Ratchet.

"Really, that's not necessary."

"Then let me put it this way." That was the point where Ratchet dropped all friendly pretenses. "I have a sparkling that flinches and cries whenever I try to touch it, and sparklings only act like that if you give them a reason to fear coming into contact with other bots. So either you let me in to look over the sparklings, or I tell the enforcers that you've been abusing sparklings, and you know how they feel about sparkling abuse."

The mech stared at Ratchet, wide-opticed and open mouthed for a moment before stepping to the side. Ratchet marched past.


	6. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family V

The sparklings that were old enough were disappointed when they found out Ratchet wasn't there to adopt. Ratchet carefully gave every sparkling a very thorough examination. They were all perfectly healthy. "Does your caretaker ever hurt or neglect you?" Ratchet asked the oldest youngling.

The youngling gave him a look of disbelief. "No, why would he?"

"Just checking…What about the little, yellow one?"

"Him? He's nobody."

Ratchet frowned. "I'm going to let you in on a secret. Adults aren't always right. In fact, they can be rather stupid, and the adult who told you that is a complete idiot. If you're alive you're somebody. It's impossible to be a nobody. Got it?" The sparkling nodded. "Good. Now, I'm done. You can run off if you want to." The sparkling apparently wanted to.

Ratchet walked over to the caretaker. "They look fine, no signs of abuse."

"Yes, just like I said."

"But I'll be keeping the yellow sparkling," said Ratchet.

The caretaker blinked. "Like an adoption?"

"Yeah, what else would I mean?"

And within the cycle, Ratchet left the adoption center with adoption papers declaring him the legal guardian of a certain yellow sparkling. "What have I gotten myself into?" That had been one of the most spontaneous things Ratchet had ever done, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. Runner had been in a very bad situation, but most bots would feel too nervous to take care of a sparkling with Decepticon coding. Ratchet figured he could look after Runner until he found someone else not bothered by that piece of information.

…Ratchet had a feeling he was going to have this sparkling on his servos for a while.

When Ratchet opened the door to his apartment, he was greeted by some very distressed sparkling sounds. He hurried to the spare berth where Runner was looking around with a look of terror on its face. Ratchet winced. Stupid! "Right. Of course you'd be frightened waking up in a strange place." He picked Runner up. Runner tensed, but started to relax when he realized that it was Ratchet. He still seemed nervous, but at least he wasn't crying. "I've got a lot of work ahead of me…"


	7. Poke Wars I

Space…the final frontier. Despite most beliefs, it is generally quiet and peaceful. It takes a lot to interrupt the serenity of the location.

This happened when the space in one particular spot started to distort and bend outwards. Then a ship seemed to burst out of it, shortly followed by another one.

They were shooting at each other.

"Gah! We're taking heavy damage! Sections 2, 3, 5, and 7 are compromised!"

"Keep steady!"

"Man, this is ridiculous! We're an exploration vessel, not a battle cruiser!"

"Yes, but we were the only ones close enough to follow the Predacon criminals!"

The other ship was having a very different conversation.

"The enemy vessel has been compromised. Finish them now!" snarled one crew member.

"Now where's the fun in that? A little pleasure before business, yeees."

And the other ship wasn't far off from being turned into scrap metal.

"Structural integrity compromised," announced the computer.

"Bring the plasma lasers around! We need to ground them! And jettison the protoforms into safe orbit." If they were going to crash, at least he could try to save the rest of the crew.

The cannons on the top of the ship came around and started firing at the other ship. By some miraculous stroke of luck, enough of the shots hit the other ship for the engines to blow.

"Engines offline!"

Now they were both heading for the planet.

"Isn't there something we can do?!"

"It's no good. The ship suffered too much damage. We're going down."

Meanwhile, on the planet, a teenage boy was staring upwards with his best friend. "I'm not sure what to do next," muttered Ash Ketchum. "I'd like to go to another region, but I'd also like to learn about this aura thing…"

"Pikachu."

"'Course, I'm not sure what else I'd do if I was learning how to use aura. I mean, I'd have to stay in one place, and don't get me wrong. I love Pallet Town, but it's so…bland staying in one place you know?"

Pikachu nodded. "Pi."

"But with all the stuff that happens to us, aura manipulation would be really useful to have."

"Pi-ka." Pikachu suddenly straightened and looked up.

"What's up Pikachu?" Ash followed Pikachu's line of sight and saw two objects falling from the sky. "Huh, wonder what that is." They landed with a noticeable sound. One wasn't too far from Pallet Town. Ash shot up and stared in the direction of the closer one. "That's really close. Let's go check it out!"

Pikachu gave Ash an exasperated look. "Pika Pika-pi!"

"Aw, c'mon. It can't be that dangerous compared to some of the stuff we've seen! Besides, what if somebody got hurt? They might need help."

Pikachu sighed and jumped onto Ash's shoulder. "Ka chu."

Ship #1:

"Ugh…Damage Report."

"Believe me. You don't wanna know."

"I was afraid of that." He thought a moment. "Any sign of the Predacons?"

"We're not picking up any signals, so they must not be close by, but we're also picking up high amounts of energon."

Ship #2:

"How annoying. Computer, is this the correct planet?"

"Unknown. There is not enough information to confirm whether or not this is the planet of interest."

The bot slammed his fist into his arm rest. Maybe he could still make this work. "Never mind that. Is there energon?"

"Affirmative. Readings indicate high levels of energon, high enough to permanently damage systems unless protected by appropriate forms and equipment."

"Is that so? Then we'll just have to take on forms based on the local fauna, the strongest you can find. Do it now."

Outside, a rotating wall of light popped up and started scanning any nearby Pokemon. Something similar was happening at the other ship.

"Hey…" The youngest member of the crew peered into the reflective surface. "I'm…a unicorn?"

A large Raichu snickered. "Not bad kid. You do like fast after all!"

"But unicorns are so girly! Can't I choose something else?"

"We have a limited amount of synthetic organic material," said a Rhydon. "We can't afford to use it just so you can change your alt mode."

"Yeah, but-"

"The ship's computer chose what was best suited for us based on what it had available. You can't afford to be picky."

The Rapidash let out a depressed sigh. The Raichu snickered. "So what're you gonna use as your code name? Fire flower? Sunset dash?"

"Shut it Rat face."

"Nah, I was thinking more along the lines of Rattrap. How 'bout you big guy?"

"I'll go by Rhinox." This form did have a horn that resembled a rhino's. Although, he was a bit curious about why it resembled a large drill as well.

"And I'm not gonna go by a stupid, girly name," muttered the Rapidash. He checked his reflection again. Maybe something to do with the horn? But the only things that came to mind were 'Uni' and 'Impaler. His mane sort of looked like it was on fire. "Blaze. I'll be Blaze. What do you think?"

"It's a fine name," said a Slowking as he stepped out of the reformatting chamber. "I think I'll keep my name in case anyone out here is familiar with Optimus Prime."

"That doesn't seem likely," said Rhinox. "I don't recognize any of these species, and I'm sure there would've been records of such unusual life forms."

"Well, that's just Prime…"

At the other ship, a Beedrill, an Aerodactyl, an Ariados, and a Parasect were meandering about outside the crashed ship.

"No, no, no!" The Houndoom holding the golden disk was significantly less pleased. "This is not Earth. Not only did you fail to eliminate the Maximals when you had the chance, you caused us to crash on the wrong planet, Megatron, you idiot!" He threw the disk back into the shadows of the ship.

"I'm sorry. I must have misheard," said a particularly imposing Tyranitar as it walked out of the shadows. "What did you call me?"

"You heard me. Because of you, we are now stranded on a completely unknown planet. I don't care if it's made entirely of energon. It's useless to us if we can't transport it back to Cybertron! This. Is. All. Your. Fault!" The Houndoom crouched into an attack position. "Which is why I am taking over. Dinobot, Terrorize!" The Houndoom broke apart and rearranged into a blue bot with very sharp teeth, a rotating drill sword, and Houndoom styled armor. "I challenge you to a one-on-one battle. The winner will become leader of the Predacons, and the loser will be destroyed."

Megatron shook his head. "My dear, dear Dinobot. There is more to being a leader than just strength. There's intelligence, planning, and…cunning." He moved his tail to reveal the Parasect aiming a missile at Dinobot. Dinobot had just enough time for his mouth to fall open in shock before the missile hit him and sent him flying far away. Megatron chuckled. "Loser. Now, listen up." The remaining Predacons gathered around him. "The Maximals also landed on this planet. I want you to find them and determine if they survived the crash. If they did, then destroy them!"

The Predacons moved to do as Megatron ordered.

Back at ship one:

"This blows," griped Rattrap. "Why'd we have to land on such a backwater planet?"

"Look on the bright side," said Optimus. "The purpose of the original exploration was to study planets we're unfamiliar with, and here we are on a completely unknown planet. What more could you ask for?"

"Well, call me spoiled, but a working space ship would be nice," snarked Rattrap.

Optimus rolled his eyes and sighed. "Just no pleasing some people."

"Hey, look down there!" said Blaze, gesturing towards a herd of Ponyta and Rapidash.

Optimus watched them running about. "Quite an agile species. It suits you."

And then Blaze was running down towards the herd. Optimus's eyes widened. "Blaze! Get back here!" Blaze was already out of hearing range and still heading straight for the herd. Optimus activated his com link. "Blaze! Return to base at once! We don't know if the Predacons survived the crash!" Static feedback came out of the com link.

"The energon radiation is interfering with the com link frequencies," deduced Rhinox. "Any further than 100 kliks, and they aren't worth slag."

"So, eh…This your first day on the job?" asked Rattrap, his voice full of sarcasm.

Optimus twitched at Rattrap's barb and turned to see the herd starting to move. He had no idea which one was Blaze, but none were staying behind. "Quick move out! We can't afford to lose Blaze!"


	8. Poke Wars II

"I am so lost," muttered Blaze.

The herd had seemed a bit confused by him, but they didn't seem to mind letting him join them. So when they started moving out, Blaze didn't think twice about going with them.

Then Blaze realized that his communicator wasn't working. He was so slagged when he got back to base. If he ever got back to base. Everything looked the same to him. He'd just have to hope that he stumbled across one of the other crew members at some point.

"Oh, hey, Ponyta and Rapidash!"

Blaze looked up at the unfamiliar voice and was shocked to see a human standing several feet away from the herd. There were humans here? He thought that they were only supposed to live on Earth! What was he doing here? Blaze immediately broke away from the herd to examine him.

Ash blinked as a small Rapidash broke away from the herd and walked over to him and Pikachu. "Hey, there li'l fella." Ash held out a hand so that the Rapidash could get his scent. "You're a friendly one, aren't ya?"

Pikachu sniffed at the Rapidash and tensed. "Pika-pi!"

"Hm? What's wrong?"

"Pi pi kachu chu kachu pika!"

Ash blinked. "Huh? You sure? He seems normal to me. Maybe a little small, but that happens sometimes."

That probably would've been the end of that if a large Beedrill hadn't suddenly flown within range. "Weird, you don't usually see Beedrill this far from the forest," commented Ash.

The Beedrill noticed Ash and Pikachu. "Human!"

Ash and Pikachu's eyes widened. "It spoke!"

"Beedriller attack!" The Beedrill flew straight for them.

Blaze wasn't gonna have that. He tackled Ash. "Blaze, Maximize!" By the time they hit the ground, Blaze had transformed to his bot mode and was pointing his gun at the Beedrill. "Eat Quasar!" He started firing. The herd stampeded and ran away from the fight.

Ash and Pikachu stared. "You're a robot! No wonder Pikachu thought you were weird!"

The Beedrill avoided the attacks as best it could. "Beedriller under attack. Beedriller, Terrorize!" He transformed and pointed his gun at them.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

Pikachu hopped away from Ash and Blaze. "Pika-chuuuuu!" Electricity arced from him and hit Beedriller. Beedriller jerked and twitched in midair while making some disconcerting buzzes/screeches. Then Pikachu stopped the attack and Beedriller fell twitching to the ground.

Blaze's optics widened. "Can they all do that?"

"Uh, you mean Pikachu? Yeah." Ash stared at Beedriller for another moment before deciding to stare at Blaze. "What are you guys anyway?"

"We're from Cybertron."

"Where's that?"

"Outer space."

"Oh, you're aliens. Why didn't you say so?" asked Ash. That explained everything. "Why do you look like Pokemon?"

"Well-"

"Blaze!"

Ash glanced towards the source: An upset looking Slowking, a Raichu, and a Rhydon. Hearing a Slowking talk was less weird. He'd seen a talking Slowking before. It hadn't been an alien. "Are you guys aliens too?"

They looked surprised. "A human?"

"Yep! That's me! And that's Pikachu."

"So…does this mean we're on Earth after all?" asked Blaze.

Rhinox frowned. "I dunno. I don't remember ever hearing about anything like these creatures on Earth."

"You gonna get up sometime this cycle?" asked Rattrap.

Blaze seemed to only just then notice he was still crouching on top of Ash. He quickly got off. Ash stood up as Pikachu jumped back onto his shoulder. Ash studied them some more. They looked so much like Pokemon. If it weren't for the size difference, Ash would assume them to be completely normal Pokemon. "How come-"

A screech interrupted them. Everyone looked up at an Aerodactyl flying overhead. The only ones who thought it was odd were Ash and Pikachu. "Huh. Weird. Aerodactyl are supposed to be extinct."

"Is that so?"

The Maximals tensed and redirected their attention to a smirking Tyranitar. Blaze quickly pushed Ash behind him.

"Megatron."

"Friends of yours?" asked Ash.

"Definitely not," said Blaze.

"I was afraid of that."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Optimus. "There has been peace between the Maximals and Predacons for centuries."

"Mayhap, what is peace to one group is time to bide for another," said Megatron. "The Predacons have simply been waiting for the best time to make our move."

"So…Is he the bad guy?" asked Ash.

"Yes."

Rhinox shushed Blaze and Ash.

"Do you really think six Predacons will be able to overthrow the government?"

"Of course not," said Megatron. "But with all the energon on this planet, it will be child's play to convince the Predacons to rise up against and overthrow their Maximal oppressors."

And that was when Blaze shot at Megatron. Optimus whirled. "Blaze!"

"Now, that was an underhanded attack," said Megatron. He chuckled. "Oh, I like you little pony."

"I'm not a pony!" shouted Blaze

"He's a Rapidash," added Ash rather unhelpfully.

"Megatron, terrorize!"

Optimus frowned as he realized he wasn't going to be able to talk Megatron out of this. "Optimus, maximize!"

Ash watched as every single Pokemon transformed into a robot that noticeably resembled their alternate forms.

And he realized that he'd just gotten involved in something much bigger than anything he'd imagined.


	9. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family VI

The first thing on Ratchet's list was to sparkling proof his apartment, which he did as soon as Runner had calmed down. Runner still had to be in the same room as him, but he seemed okay with letting Ratchet be.

The second thing on Ratchet's list was to get some sparkling grade energon. Fortunately, Ratchet knew how to make it using normal energon. He didn't have any small cubes so he had to give Runner an adult size. "Here you go. I know it's bigger than you're used to, but I'll get some cubes that're your size after we finish."

Runner stared up at Ratchet before cautiously taking a bite of the energon. He stared at Ratchet again. Ratchet internally frowned but smiled outwardly. "You need more than that." He pushed the cube a bit closer to Runner. Runner took a few more bites before looking at Ratchet again. Since that seemed to be enough for a sparkling Runner's size, Ratchet gently scooted the energon away before finishing his own.

Next item on the list was to pick up sparkling supplies. This included sparkling grade energon in appropriate sized cubes (of course), some simple toys, a couple of educational videos, a crib berth, and a few supplies to finish sparkling proofing the apartment.

Ratchet was starting to remember why he'd decided to never procreate. "This better be worth it," he muttered. Runner just blinked at him and continued gnawing on his new chewing ring.

Ratchet eventually managed to put the crib berth together in his room while Runner played with his toys. Why were the instructions so complicated?

The last order of business was looking for a daycare center. As Ratchet expected, there was only one in the city. Well, it would have to do. He'd just have to hope that they wouldn't find out about Runner's heritage.


	10. Cuteness Wins the War

Megatron twitched. "Is this a joke?"

Ultra Magnus sighed. "I'm afraid not. This is Optimus Prime."

A red and blue sparkling clicked up at Megatron while huggling a plushie. Unlike all other Cybertronians, he showed no fear of the warlord and just looked curious about all the big mechs around him.

"Why did you make a sparkling Prime?" demanded Megatron.

"We didn't," said Ultra Magnus. "We were displaying the late Sentinel Prime in the temple and allowing whoever wished to view his body. Optimus Prime's carrier…" Ultra Magnus gestured at a bot that looked like he wanted to jump in and snatch Optimus away. "Came to view the body and brought Optimus Prime with him. When they reached Sentinel Prime's body the Matrix of Leadership reacted and bonded to Optimus Prime before anyone could react."

Everyone looked at Optimus, who was now sitting on the floor and sucking on a couple of his fingers.

"You're absolutely sure he has the matrix?" asked Megatron.

Optimus's carrier stepped forward and slid Optimus's chest plates back to reveal the matrix.

Megatron pinched his nasal ridge. "Okay, no, just no. I can kill adults. They can decide to fight me. I don't hurt sparklings. What am I supposed to do in this sort of situation?"

Ultra Magnus shrugged. "I have no idea. This sort of thing has never really happened before."

Megatron picked up Optimus. Optimus blinked before smiling and holding his plushie out to Megatron.

There was something utterly depressing in the fact that the friendliest Prime Megatron had ever met was a sparkling.

Megatron could feel the disapproving look from Soundwave and pretty much every other soldier with him. "Fine, I'll wait until he's older."

And that was how the Great War ended.


	11. Jacks I

Jack walked out of the bakery with a bag full of day old bread. He needed some peanut butter…

To the grocery store!

As Jack walked to the store, he passed the KO Burger. Normally he didn't care. He'd occasionally grab some food there, but not today. However, he did see something that caught his interest: A blue motorcycle that he'd never seen before.

"Huh." Jack walked over to examine it. "Don't remember seeing you before." He leaned over it. "You're absolutely gorgeous. I wonder who you belong to. An out of towner maybe?" He sighed. "I wish I could ride a bike like you, but I don't think that's ever gonna happen…"

A revving engine sounded behind Jack. As he turned to look, the motorcycle suddenly started up. Thanks to Jack's awkward position, he ended up falling on top of it as it pulled away, dropping the bag of bread as he did so. "Our bread!"

At that point the bike was going fast enough that Jack didn't think he could get off safely, so he just hung on as best as he could while trying to figure out how the bike was moving. He certainly didn't think he'd hit an ignition.

An odd beam of light shot by his head. He glanced behind them. A couple of purple cars were chasing after them and shooting what looked like lasers at them.

"…I had a dream like this once."

The bike suddenly veered into an alley and came to a stop. Jack climbed off. "Bleh. Dizzy…"

The bike revved threateningly. "I don't exist. If you tell anyone about me…"

"Like they'd believe me," quipped Jack. He took off on a run away from the possessed bike or whatever. "Jack, you awake? That was really strange!"

Jack's comment was cut off as a laser shot by him. He glanced back and saw one of the purple cars still chasing him. "Hey! What're you chasing me for?" It shot more lasers. "Someone needs to work on their aim…"

The motorcycle zoomed past the car and pulled up beside Jack. "Hop on!"

"But you just said-"

"Just do it!"

Jack jumped on and was pleasantly surprised when he managed to land on the bike perfectly. "Are you a possessed bike?"

"No!"

"Are those possessed cars?"

"No!"

"Why are they trying to kill us?"

"Not us, just me."

Jack scrunched his face up. "Then why did that guy chase me when you left?"

"I don't know!"

Jack looked up and paled as he saw the overpass they were on ended suddenly. "We're gonna go off the road!"

"That's the plan."

And then the drove off, Jack screaming all the way until they landed. He staggered off, groaning at the pain from the impact. He looked up and saw a boy with really spiky hair and glasses staring at him in shock. Jack raised a hand in greeting, which the boy returned. Jack staggered over to him as the two purple cars drove off as well, closely followed by a yellow car.

As soon as the cars hit the ground, they transformed into bipedal forms and started fighting.

"What are they?" asked the kid.

"Not possessed cars…and a bike," answered Jack. He straightened as the cycle (Which looked as feminine as it sounded) landed several hits to the face of one of the purple bots. "Just like in the cartoons!"

The yellow bot stepped back just then and made an odd crunching sound. It winced and checked the bottom of its foot, revealing that it had stepped on a toy car. It beeped an apology. "It's okay," said the spiky-headed kid

And then one of the purple bots punched the yellow bot in the face.

"We should get out of here," said Jack, looking for a way out. He gave the robots a longing look. "Aw…" He went back to looking for an escape route. "No buts. Mom will kill us if we hang around a giant robot fight." He spotted a drainage pipe. "That'll work. C'mon spiky-headed kid."

Raf stared as he finally figured out this was the Darby boy he'd been told to stay away from. He cautiously followed after him, keeping an eye on him to be sure he didn't pull anything before they could separate.

His mom would kill him if she found out he had been around the town lunatic.


	12. Jacks II

Jack yawned as he walked out of school. Another day of trying to learn in an understaffed institution full of people that don't like him and bad food.

Oh well, time to get to work.

Jack noticed the boy from yesterday. They'd separated rather quickly so Jack had no idea what his name was. He waved anyway. The kid either didn't notice or decided to ignore it. Both were equally possible.

Hey, that looked like the car from yesterday. Jack ran over as it pulled up to spiky-headed kid. "Hi spiky-headed kid, hi robot car. Or car robot. I'm not entirely sure what to call you guys." Raf inched away with wide eyes.

The car opened its door, revealing it was empty, and beeped a quick set of instructions.

"Sorry, gotta get to work," said Jack. "Maybe in a few hours or on the weekend." Jack turned and started to walk away. "Look us up then."

Raf watched him walk away. "I'm free." He climbed in. "So, where're we going?" The car beeped a response. "Okay, as long as I'm home before curfew."

A few feet away, Jack was still walking when he was cut off by a familiar motorcycle. He eyed the woman on top of it. "Uh…Who are you?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Jack's eyes widened before poking at the rider. His finger went through her. "Nothing…But you're not a ghost."

"It's a hologram."

"Oh."

"It wouldn't exactly be conspicuous if I drove around without a rider."

"Okey dokey." He started walking again, but the bike cut her off again. "Hey!"

"Look, you need to come with me."

"We have to get to the bakery we work at." Jack tried to walk around her. She cut him off. He tried to get around the other way. She cut him off again. He made to go one way, but ran in the opposite direction when she went to cut him off. He got as far as an alley when she caught up to him and cut him off again. "I should've seen that coming."

The cycle transformed to its bipedal form. "Look, I'm not exactly happy about this, but Optimus Prime has requested your presence since you are now one of the few humans aware of our presence on Earth."

"Dude! What're you waiting for?!" The two turned to see an Asian looking girl with distinctive hair with pink highlights. "Go with!"

"Scrap," deadpanned the cycle bot.

"Does this mean she has to come too?" asked Jack.

Cycle bot groaned. "Unfortunately." She transformed back to bike mode, probably to keep anyone else from finding out about her. "Just get on so we can get out of here."

"You're not gonna let us say no, are you?" muttered Jack.

"Why would you say no?" asked punk girl. She jumped on. "Let's roll!"

"Do you have a license?" asked Jack.

"Nope!"

"Me neither. Got any helmets?" asked Jack.

"Of course not."

Jack sighed. "That's not very safe," he muttered. "Can you go slow and keep to deserted areas?"

Punk girl rolled her eyes. "Seriously?"

"Our mom's a nurse. She works in the emergency room." Jack still climbed on behind punk girl. "We will be grounded forever if this gets back to her."

"Oh relax. It'll totally be worth it," said punk girl as cycle bot started to roll out. "How often do you get the chance to hang out with transforming robots?"

"Oh it's cool. Just now isn't a good time. We should call Cathy and let her know something came up."

"We? What do you mean we?"

Maybe it was Jack's imagination, but it sounded like cycle bot groaned under them.


	13. Jacks III

Jack was very relieved when they got to the desert. Yes, cycle bot sped up, but at least he didn't have to worry someone seeing him riding on a motorcycle with no license or helmet.

Punk girl let out a whoop. "I am so getting a motorcycle!"

"Why are we heading for a cliff?" asked Jack. "Is it a fake cliff like the fake rider?" The side shifted up, revealing a tunnel. "Fake!"

The bike pulled up in a large room full of equipment with four huge bots in it. Punk girl ran up to the big, green one. "Wow, you're huge! What's your top speed, how much can you benchpress, have you ever used a wrecking ball as a punching bag?"

The bot seemed rather overwhelmed.

"Wooooow…" said Jack as he got off and cycle bot transformed. "You guys are big…and shiny…"

A red and white one looked at him in disbelief, as if asking why that was the first thing to strike him. "I like shiny," Jack offered as an explanation.

The yellow bot let out a beeping laugh.

"I apologize for bringing you here on such short notice," said a large red and blue bot. Jack immediately liked him. "However, I feared your safety was at risk."

"Weren't there only supposed to be two kids?" asked the red and white bot.

"The girl showed up while the older boy was being difficult," explained cycle bot.

"We weren't being difficult," protested Jack. "We just don't like missing work." As he explained he climbed up to the platform spiky-headed kid was on. "Hi there."

Spiky-headed kid stared back with wide eyes.

Punk girl was placed on the platform by a still nervous Jolly Green Giant. "So what're you guys doing here?" asked Miko. "Alien invasion? First contact? Alien invasion as first contact?"

"We have no intention to invade any place," said Leader, frowning. "In truth, we are more along the lines of refugees."

"That's sad," said Jack.

Leader nodded. "There was a world wide civil war on Cybertron, our home planet. The weapons used rendered it completely uninhabitable. We were forced to abandon it. We ended up on Earth. We are lacking in supplies so we are unable to leave your planet."

"But why Earth?"

"It has a vast store of energon, which is necessary for us to survive," explained Leader. He seemed to hesitate for a moment. "And our enemy is also on this planet. They are…less willing to cohabitate with humans."

"So it is an alien invasion," crowed punk girl.

"Not exactly."

"It sounds like an alien invasion."

Leader sighed.

"Can we do introductions?" asked Jack. "Jack keeps giving you weird names."

Punk girl gave him a weird look. "Was that third person?"

"No, I was talking about Jack."

"Then who are you?"

"Jack."

"But you just said you were talking about Jack."

"I was. Lot's of people have the same name."

Punk girl had to give him that point and nodded. "I'm Miko Nakadai. I'm from Japan."

"No accent," commented Jack.

Miko nodded and turned to Leader. "What about you?"

"I am Optimus Prime." He seemed secretly amused by the turn the conversation had taken. "Behind me is Ratchet, our chief medical officer." Ratchet made a harrumph sound. Optimus gestured to the other three. "You were brought here by our scouts Arcee and Bumblebee. Bulkhead is a frontline warrior." Optimus turned and frowned. "Is everything all right?"

Jack turned and realized that spiky-headed kid had gotten farther and farther away during the conversation and was now pressed against the wall. Jack put Miko between them. Miko either didn't notice or didn't care. "C'mon kid! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" She gestured towards the bots. "How often do you get to meet giant alien robots?"

"That term is highly offensive," interjected Ratchet.

"I assure you, we mean you no harm," agreed Optimus. "You were brought here because we were worried about your safety."

"It's not that," said spiky-headed kid.

"Seriously? What else is there to be scared of?" asked Miko.

Spiky-headed kid looked past Miko. She followed his and saw Jack nervously tapping his fingers together. "That guy? There's nothing scary about him."

"I-It's okay," Jack said quietly. "We're used to it."

Miko blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"We didn't bring someone dangerous in here, did we?" asked Arcee.

"Oh, no, we'd never hurt anyone." Jack suddenly straightened, seeming more open. "Except for self-defense. Mom and Dr. Mandy say that's okay."

Optimus frowned. "Jack, why would you be used to people being afraid of you?"

"Most people don't like us," explained Jack, like it was perfectly natural. "Never have."

'Us' That word stuck out to Optimus. He realized that Jack was constantly referring to himself in the plural. Why would he do that? He was a single person. The only other time Optimus had seen such a thing was Blitzwing…

"Jack, do you have more than one personality?" asked Optimus.

Jack gave him a confused look, as if not understanding why Optimus was asking. "Yes…"

"Cool!" said Miko. "There's seriously more than one person in there?" She poked him in the head.

Jack blinked. "Yes, three."

Miko grinned. "This is officially the best day ever!"

Jack blinked again before happily grinning back.

"You have got to be-A mentally ill human?!" questioned Ratchet. "How do we know he's even capable of keeping this secret?"

"We're not mentally ill," protested Jack.

"Hey, if he's crazy, they probably won't believe him," said Arcee.

"We're not crazy!" Already, the bots were ignoring them, like he wasn't even there.

Same as every other time.

Jack wilted. "I wanna go home…"

Optimus frowned. "I understand…" He transformed into a red and blue semi sans a trailer. "I can transport you to your residence."

Jack nodded. Before he started down, he felt a hand on his arm. He looked at Miko in surprise. "Hey, you don't have to go."

Jack smiled. "You're really nice. You'd make a good friend." But that was only one. They walked down to Optimus and climbed in. Optimus rolled out of the tunnel.

Raf let out a sigh of relief. He let out an 'eep' when Miko gave him a glare. Then she glared at the bots. "You guys are all jerks!"


	14. Metal Hearts I

Sari blinked as she looked around the cargo bay she found herself in. "How rude!" Really, what reason did Bumblebee have for dumping her down that chute? She'd just wanted to see what was going on in that room.

A particular box caught Sari's attention. It was orange with lines that looked like circuitry set in its surface. Curious, she walked over and tapped it. The box immediately opened, exposing a crystalline sphere inside of it. The sphere shot a beam of light at Sari. Images went into her mind. Images went out of her mind. Then something heavy landed on her.

"Oof!" Sari looked up in surprise. There was a full grown man on top of her. He was unconscious so Sari had to squirm out from under him.

Wow, he looked weird. He was wearing a fancy red jacket, black shirt, and jeans. For some reason, the left sleeve of his jacket had been replaced by dark red and yellow armor. His metal belt had the same coloration and a metal pouch that looked like it was practically grafted to his hip. Once Sari could tear her eyes away from the cool armor, she got a closer look at his face. He had surprisingly full lips for a man and brown hair. The most noticeable thing about his face was the scar that made up most of the upper left portion. The scar extended into his scalp, which was only noticeable because the hair was white instead of brown.

Sari poked at the scar. The man groaned and his eyes fluttered for a second. Sari waited, but he didn't move again. "Hey, are you okay mister?"

Then Bumblebee came running in. "Sorry I had to toss-" Bumblebee paused. "Who's that guy?"

Sari shrugged. "I don't know. He just came out of that box over there."

Bumblebee blinked at the Allspark container. "But that's impossible…"

Sari poked at the guy again. "Hey, you okay? You opened your eyes for a second there." The man remained unresponsive. He did groan when Bumblebee picked them up, but that was it.

"Maybe I should take you guys to Ratchet."

And that was how Sari found out that her key card had been turned into an actual key with healing powers. Good thing too. Prowl didn't look like he was gonna last much longer.


	15. Metal Hearts II

Orion groaned as he woke up. He hurt all over. His memories were fuzzy too. The last thing he remembered was he and Tamara being startled by something. He thought it had been…a noise? It had been on his blind side. He didn't know what they'd heard. He ran his hands over his face as he finally opened his eye…

And was surprised to see things looked odd…slightly blurry and more…more…just more. His range of vision seemed wider. He put a hand over his right eye. He could still see, even if it was rather blurry. He felt the other side of his face and was shocked to find that instead of an empty cavity, he now had an eye.

Orion threw back the covers on the bed and stood, feeling lightheaded suddenly. He cast a quick Cure. Feeling better, he hurried to a reflective surface that he was sure was a mirror.

He looked the same. Brown hair with a large white patch, mismatched eyebrows…the only real difference was the fact that he had a second eye. It wasn't even the same bright, bright blue that his right eye had always been. This was a bright, acid green that he'd come to associate with Tamara.

…Well, that was worrying. He hoped the eye didn't belong to her. Speaking of which, where was she? He pulled out the star charm she'd made him and tried to channel his feeling through it.

Nothing. It was as if the bond had been broken.

Thoroughly disturbed, Orion decided it would be a good idea to look for his friend. He took out all the lines (casting a Cure to stop the resulting bleeding) grabbed the clothes that had been placed on a chair, and jumped out the window.


	16. Metal Hearts III

This was not going how Orion had planned. He'd been looking for Tamara, but she wasn't responding to his nudges. There was no way she'd be ignoring him, especially if what he thought happened really happened.

Ahead of him a yellow car stopped and a dark-skinned redhead girl jumped out. "Hey! You're that guy from the ship!"

Orion blinked. "Huh?"

Then to his amazement, the car twitched and shifted into a robot that towered over them. "Hey, you're right. It is that guy! How did you get in the ship? I mean I brought Sari to the ship, but I don't see how you could've gotten there."

Orion scratched his forehead. "I don't know what you guys are talking about. I just woke up in a hospital a couple of hours ago."

"Yeah, Ratchet insisted on taking you," said Bumblebee. "We tried to wake you up, but you wouldn't even move."

Orion frowned. "You found me on your ship?"

"Yep."

"What sort of ship?"

"A space ship. Duh."

"And you popped out of the Allspark!" added Sari.

"The what?"

"It's how we reproduce," said Bumblebee.

"Okay…" That was bizarre. "I have no idea how I got in your…Allspark. Or if that's even supposed to be possible." He tended to stretch that. "Was there a young woman with me?"

"No, just you," said Sari.

"So we must've been separated before then," mused Orion. "Well, I guess I owe you my thanks for taking me to the hospital." He held out a hand. "My name is Orion. You?"

Sari enthusiastically shook his hand. "I'm Sari!"

Optimus chuckled. "I like your name."

"Me too."

"I'm Bumblebee." Orion had to settle for a finger. "Do you need a ride?"

Orion shook his head. "No, I need to find Tamara. It'll be easier if I'm on foot."

"Can't you call her?" asked Sari. "That'd be a lot easier."

"It would, but she's not answering," explained Orion. "I'm getting worried. She's never not answered."

"Maybe you could call the enforcers," suggested Bumblebee.

"Police," corrected Sari.

"Right, police."

Orion sighed and shook his head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Neither of us will have any records for them to use."

"Why?"

"It's…complicated." Orion thought of how to explain this. "We're from…I'm not really sure where we're from, and even if I did, I doubt you'd have heard of it."

"That's kind of sad," said Sari.

Orion shrugged. "I can't say I was fond of it."

Sari frowned, like that was a crime of some sort. "Do you have a picture of Tamara? Maybe Bumblebee and I can look for her."

Sure, why not? Orion pulled out a scrap book, surprising Sari. "Here's a few." He flipped open to the middle.

Sari and Bumblebee leaned forwards. "Wow, she's really pretty," said Sari.

"Don't you worry, if anyone can find her, we can!" said Bumblebee.

Orion smiled. "I'm sure." He put the book away. "Well, I'd best get going, and I'm sure you need to be getting home."

"It's not that late," said Sari.

Orion stretched. "Feels late. I'll keep looking and then find a place to sleep for the night."

"Okay." Bumblebee turned back into a car. Sari jumped back in. "See you around."

Orion smiled. Somehow, children were always able to cheer him up. He sighed as he looked around. This city was a big place. He was going to be here for a while.


	17. Butterflies: Ghost Stories

Flareup walked into the rec room with a grin. "Guess what I found."

"An Allspark shard?" asked Bumblebee.

Flareup shook her head. "No, I was bored so I decided to look up some information on the haunted forest online. There were tons of interesting stories."

"Like what?" asked Bulkhead.

"Well, you know how Rodimus and the others ran into a talking coyote? Turns out there's an ancient Native American trickster god named Coyote who matches the description."

"Huh."

"And there was apparently a massacre of some kind here in the 1700's. Since then people have seen transparent figures and the sounds of screaming and sobbing in certain areas."

"Sounds like what Red Alert and Rodimus saw, er, heard."

"There are also beautiful women with deer legs that will lure men in and then trample them to death."

Bulkhead and Bumblebee winced.

"And giant disembodied heads that roll around and will not stop chasing you until they catch and eat you."

"That's just weird."

"And babies that will lure you in by crying but will suck off all your flesh when you touch them."

"Ew…"

"And apelike creatures that hunt and eat humans."

"Wendigo are humans."

The three jumped and turned to look at Silverbolt, who had entered when they hadn't been paying attention. "What are human?" asked Flareup

"Wendigo are apelike but they're human. They are cannibals who transform so their outside match their insides," explained Silverbolt. "Humans also become Wendigos if they kill one. And the flesh eating infants have red eyes to distinguish them from normal human infants. And it is possible to escape the rolling heads. Otherwise, no one would be able to report them."

Bumblebee's optics widened. "You mean those stories were all true?!"

Silverbolt nodded. "Yes, you'd be surprised how many legends are actually true, albeit altered by time and misunderstandings." Silverbolt's ears twitched, and he glanced to the side. "Excuse me. It seems there's a fight about to break out." He left before any of the three bots could recover from his previous statement.

The three young bots exchanged horrified looks. Those stories…were true? There were actually creatures like that in the forest that was only yards from their base?

The three had a lot of trouble sleeping that night.

_You know what's really scary? The only thing I made up was the massacre, and it was based on similar massacres that really happened. Everything else is stuff I've read about._


	18. Poke Wars III

Ash glanced at the Pokemon next to him. It was hard to believe they were actually alien robots. "So, what was that about back there?"

Optimus sighed. "I'd like to say we simply came to your planet to study it, but the truth is that we crashed here after trying to stop a group of criminals."

"But at least we made them crash too," pointed out Blaze.

Ash frowned. "So you guys are stuck here until you fix your ship?"

"That ain't gonna happen," said Rattrap. "It's completely slagged."

"And contacting Cybertron's going to be difficult since we have no idea where we are," said Rhinox.

"Can't they just follow your trail or something?" asked Ash.

"It's not that simple," said Optimus. "Both ships traveled here using transwarp drives. They allow us to teleport across long distances, but they also allow for travel through time so not only do we not know where we are, we have no idea when we are."

"Oh, I guess that would make it really difficult to find you guys," agreed Ash.

"Hey, it's not all bad," said Blaze. "There's plenty of energon, so we don't have to worry about going into stasis. Plus, we've got a guide to help us out!" He grinned at Ash. Ash grinned back.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," said Optimus. "If Ash gets involved he could be in danger from the Predacons."

Ash shrugged. "That's okay, I'm a Pokemon trainer, and it's not that different from normal battles. Besides, weird stuff happens to me all the time."

"Like what?"

"Well, there was this one time in Johto where I-What's a Houndoom doing out here all by itself?"

Blaze and the other Maximals turned their attention to the bridge in front of them. Standing in the middle was a rather large Houndoom. "You say that's unusual for that species?" asked Optimus.

"Yeah, they're pack Pokemon, and it's pretty big for a Houndoom too…"

"Attention Maximals," said the Houndoom.

"Oh, it's the last Predacon," said Ash. "That explains it."

"I have left the Predacons," the Houndoom corrected Ash with a glare. "And I have chosen to join the Maximals, as your leader."

"What?!"

"I don't think it works that way," said Ash.

"Silence human!" snapped the Houndoom with a growl.

"Look, we have no problem with letting you join our group," said Optimus.

"Speak for yourself!" interjected Rattrap.

"But we can't just let you be in charge because you want to be," continued Optimus. "We have rules and regulations we need to follow. Not to mention the fact that we know nothing about you."

"Do you really think following 'rules and regulations' is going to give you victory over the Predacons?" growled the Predacons. "Megatron does not fight with honor. He will destroy you before you even have a chane to fight him."

"That doesn't mean we have to stoop to his level," argued Optimus.

"I disagree," growled the Houndoom. And then he transformed and lunged at Optimus. Optimus transformed and parried the attack with his sword.

Blaze started forward, but was stopped by Rhinox. "Don't."

"But Boss bot-"

"He's a much better fighter than you think," said Rhinox.

"The other guy's better," said Ash.

"Hey!" said Rattrap.

"Oh, Optimus is good, but he's hesitating and holding back his strength. He can't read Houndoom. Houndoom isn't hesitating and is using all his strength. Plus, he's predicting Optimus's moves pretty accurately." Ash paused when he noticed the three other Maximals staring at him. "I'm a trainer. I have to know how to see that sort of thing."

"Hit him!" shouted Rattrap.

"I'm trying!"

Houndoom snorted. "Try? You think trying is enough?"

Ash tensed. "Get away from the cliff!"

"Huh?"

And then the Houndoom bot knocked Optimus over the cliff. Optimus ignited his jet pack and shot up. The Houndoom bot was caught off guard enough that Optimus was able to hit him over the head and send him careening off the cliff. He was fortunate enough to grab the edge of the cliff and hang on. "Damn it!"

"He can fly?" asked Ash.

"He's our flier," said Blaze.

"But he turns into a Slowking…"

"Doesn't mean he can't fly in his root form," said Rhinox.

"But he's not a tree!"

Rattrap let out a cackle.

"Your crew needs discipline," deadpanned the Houndoom.

Optimus coughed. "I'll work on it." He reached down to grab the Houndoom's hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Pulling you up."

"I lost."

"Yeah, let him go!" said Rattrap.

"Shut up Rattrap," said Optimus, Rhinox, and Cheetor.

"I'm not gonna let you fall just because you lost a fight."

"I would have killed you."

"Yes, well, desperate times…"

Pikachu tensed up and looked behind the group. "Pika pi!"

"What is it?" Ash followed Pikachu's gaze. "Predacons!"

Rattrap swore. "Oh, of all the rotten-"

"Since the Predacons will want to kill you too, maybe we should put aside our differences in the common interest of self-preservation," suggested Optimus.

The Houndoom bot growled. "Fine."


	19. Jacks IV

Jack walked out of school, throwing his book bag on. He drew to a stop when he saw Miko leaning against the stairpost. "Hi."

"Hi Jacks."

Jack blinked. "Jacks?"

"Well, there's more than one of ya." Miko pushed away from the stairpost and gestured over towards Raf and a car that Jack recognized as Bumblebee. "So wanna come with? Optimus gave everyone a lecture about how they treated you after he got back."

"They'll still think there's something wrong with us," muttered Jack. "Anyway, we have work. We already missed our shift yesterday. It was hard enough getting this job."

Miko nodded in understanding. "What about after work? Can you come then?"

Jack shrugged. "We guess. We have homework, but we can do that anywhere."

Miko grinned. "Great, I'll see you then!" She ran over to Raf, stopping to wave at Jack.

Jack waved back. Miko was nice. It wasn't often they met someone who accepted them so easily. They weren't going to throw away an opportunity for a friend just because the people she hung out with didn't like them.


	20. Cuteness Wins the War II

"I can't believe how long this is taking," muttered Kup. "How long does it take to gawk at a dead bot?"

Orion clicked.

"I can't even remember why I thought it would be a good idea to bring you here. I can think of much better things we both could be doing with our time."

Orion yawned.

"Oh no don't' you go into recharge," commanded Kup. "We're almost inside the temple. I didn't wait in line for five joors just so you could recharge through the presentation."

"Who's this little guy?" asked a temple guard.

"Orion Pax."

"He's so cute. Is he your grandcreation?"

"Creation actually," corrected Kup.

The guard blinked. "Really? But-"

"Yeah, I'm old. It happens."

"So where's his other creator?"

That question caused Kup to start cursing Orion's erstwhile sire, causing several optics to widen, jaws to drop, a dock worker to faint, and Orion to giggle.

"Um, never mind then." The guard hurried away.

Kup rolled his optics as he readjusted Orion. At least they were in the temple. Shouldn't be more than a breem before they were within view of the body.

Yeah, they were pretty darn close now. Kup held Orion up so he could get a better look. "Ya see that? That's Sentinel Prime, leader of all of Cybertron."

A silent moment of respect.

"He was an afthead. Don't you dare end up like him."

Cue more dropped jaws. Kup would have been escorted none too gently from the temple for that, but then the Matrix of Leadership started glowing and opened, blinding everyone present.

_Arise Optimus Prime_

The light faded. Kup looked the same. Orion on the other servo looked rather disoriented and had noticeably altered armor. Kup looked at Orion in horror.

"Did the Matrix just put a sparkling in charge of Cybertron?" asked the bot behind Kup.

And that was when Kup started cursing Primus for making Orion a Prime before he could even walk on his own during a time of civil unrest and war.


	21. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family VII

_Since I've got a couple of days off, I decided to post a bunch of stuff. Might mean you won't get any updates for a while after this, but who knows?_

"Slaggit, slaggit, slaggit!" Ratchet was pacing. He paused when he noticed Runner looking at him nervously. "I'm not angry at you. It's just…ugh!" Apparently the daycare workers were just as stupid as the orphanage mech. After five days of picking Runner up and noticing how upset he looked when he'd originally been perfectly happy, Ratchet had decided something was up and decided to pull Runner out.

Only now Ratchet had no one to look after Runner while he was at work, and his workplace wasn't one you bring a sparkling to. Maybe when Runner was older, but not now.

Ratchet's ruminations were cut off when someone started knocking at the apartment door. "Coming." He opened the door.

"Hey Ratchet! What's up?" greeted Wheeljack.

Ratchet opticed the soot covering Wheeljack. "Did you blow up again?"

Wheeljack waved the question aside. "Minor accident. No one was damaged. Got fired again so I'm gonna be living off favors and repairs and savings until I get rehired so I figured I'd make my rounds." Wheeljack peered over Ratchet's shoulder. "Hello…"

Ratchet looked behind him to see what had caught Wheeljack's attention. Runner. Wheeljack ran past Ratchet and picked Runner up. "Oh he's so cute! Where did you come from little fella?"

Runner was too busy being distracted by Wheeljack's head fins to make any sort of response. That was odd. Usually Runner was scared of new adults. He listened as Wheeljack's language devolved into sickingly sweet sparkling talk.

"So how'd this guy end up in your apartment?" asked Wheeljack. "Are you watching him for someone?"

"No, he's mine."

Wheeljack blinked. "I didn't know you were seeing someone."

Ratchet had to reign in the urge to hit Wheeljack. "Not like that! I adopted him."

"That seems even less likely," pointed out Wheeljack. "You're kind of a grumpy guy."

Ratchet rolled his optics. "He was in a bad situation, and I couldn't find anyone else willing to take him in."

"Really? But he's such an adorable sparkling! How could anyone not wanna take you home with them?" asked Wheeljack, addressing Runner at the end.

"His sire's a Decepticon."

Wheeljack paused for a moment before shrugging and going back to making nonsense sounds at Runner. Well, Wheeljack seemed to have accepted that pretty easily, and Runner seemed to be warming up to him.

Wait…

"Would you be willing to sparkling sit for me?"

Wheeljack's optics lit up. "Really?!"

"Yeah, I can't take him to daycare anymore." Ratchet refrained from explaining why. "And I want to wait until he's a bit older before I take him to work with me."

"Yes! Yes I can watch after him! I'd be happy to!" Wheeljack turned to Runner. "You hear that? From now on, just call me Uncle Wheeljack!"

Runner clicked.

"Now, I've got some rules. First, no taking him to your apartment." Ratchet had seen the place and considered it hazardous at best. Definitely not a good environment for a sparkling. "Second, no working on any of your projects around Runner or in my apartment." That was a no-processor. "Third, no feeding him energon candy." Ratchet _was_ a medic. "Fourth, he's only watching sparkling programming." There were some weird programs out there. "Fifth, do not leave Runner on his own." Runner hadn't gotten into anything he shouldn't yet, but Ratchet was sure he would eventually.

Wheeljack nodded as Ratchet continued to list rules. "Got it. Don't worry. You can count on me!"


	22. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family VIII

Ratchet tried to keep himself from yelling. He really did. But the situation was too much for him, and he failed. "What did you two do?!"

Wheeljack chuckled nervously. "Well, I thought he might enjoy digit paints so I bought some before coming over. He somehow managed to get some on my head fins, so I put some blue paint on his horn, he slapped some on my shoulder, and things kind of went from there."

And had ended with Ratchet's living room being completely covered in paint splatters. Ratchet ground his denta. "You're supposed to be a responsible adult."

"What about Runner?"

"He's a sparkling. He doesn't know any better." Plus Runner had been happier than Ratchet had ever seen him when he presented Ratchet with a picture that appeared to be composed entirely of messy blobs of color. "You had better be able to clean this."

Wheeljack experimentally scraped some of the paint with a digit. It flaked away. "…I think I have some paint thinner."

Ratchet should probably consider himself fortunate that Wheeljack's first reaction wasn't to build a machine to remove the paint for him.


	23. Butterflies: Ratchet gets a Family IX

"C'mon, you can do it. It's an easy word."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "What're you doing?"

"I'm trying to teach Runner how to talk," said Wheeljack. "He seems kind of behind in that area." Not surprising really. "I've been trying to get him to say Sire all day." Wheeljack pointed at Ratchet.

Runner pointed at Ratchet. "Rat-het."

"See? He's using your actual name instead of 'Sire'."

"That's not a big deal," said Ratchet. "Besides, I'm not his sire so it's correct."

"You're acting the part though," pointed out Wheeljack. "So shouldn't he want to call you Sire?"

"With that logic, he would be calling you carrier," pointed out Ratchet.

"Oh good point." Wheeljack turned to Runner. "What's my name?"

Runner tilted his head before smiling. "Jack Jack!"

"Close enough. Although I gotta wonder why he won't use 'Sire' or 'Carrier'. It's kind of weird."

"His situation isn't exactly normal," pointed out Ratchet. "I'd be surprised if he did."

"Maybe we can ask him!" said Wheeljack.

"How?"

"I'll finish teaching him how to talk!"


	24. Ratchet gets a Family X

"Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left."

"Why do you keep saying that?" asked Ratchet.

"Talk. Walk. Talk. Walk," responded Runner. He abruptly fell silent when a bot passed on their other side before starting up again.

Ratchet sighed. Honestly he couldn't blame Wheeljack for this. Runner had needed to know how to talk.

"Red. Blue. Red. Blue."

"Please stop repeating words."

Runner immediately stopped talking. Bleh. Ratchet was probably going to have to do something about that eventually.

The two kept walking in silence. "Out of curiousity, why do you not use 'Sire'?" He didn't know if Runner would be able to understand and answer, but he might as well check.

"Sire bad. Rat-het not bad."

"Right." That made sense. He'd probably been told that his sire was bad at some point. "Well, I don't care either way what you call me."

Runner blinked up at him. "Rat-het."

Ratchet didn't know why that made his chassis hurt.


	25. Poke Wars IV

Ash and Pikachu stared at the space ship before them. "Wow, your ship is really…"

"Slagged," deadpanned Rattrap

Ash had no idea what that word meant but it did seem fitting. "I guess you can't exactly get replacement parts for it."

"I don't even think you have the technology necessary to create the materials for the parts," said Rhinox. "No offense."

"None taken," said Ash. "I think there are a couple of space research centers that make rockets, but those need a lot of fuel and are really expensive."

Optimus filed this information away in case it was ever useful in the future. "It sounds like we might be able to procure some of the material needed for repairs. We'll have to research some more to be sure."

Everyone went inside. "Do we have to go in the CR chambers?" asked Blaze.

Rhinox shrugged. "Gonna have to examine you first". He transformed into his robot mode, along with everyone else. "It'll take time. Best to keep the least injured available for defense."

"We can help," offered Ash. "We have some time."

"No, we can't ask that of you," said Optimus.

Ash smiled. "That's okay. You don't have to."

Optimus gave Ash a look of disbelief for a moment before sighing. "Is there any way to convince you otherwise?"

Ash shook his head. "Nope!"

"Optimus, I know you don't like this, but we'll need all the help we can get," said Rhinox. "He'll certainly know more about the planet than we do."

Optimus sighed. "Fine, but there are going to be rules. I don't want Megatron trying to kill you again."

Ash nodded. "Okay."


	26. Poke Wars V

"Hey! It's me an' Pikachu!" shouted Ash. "We brought some stuff for you guys!" There was no response. "Guys?"

The ship lift suddenly lowered. Ash and Pikachu climbed on and let it carry them up. It was slightly less messy than last time.

"I brought some food and stuff." Ash placed the bag on the center table. "Some berries, a couple of books, one of my old pokedexes, a thunderstone, a couple of empty pokeballs, a radio, and a swiss army knife. I don't think you'll need that last one with all the stuff you have, but I had a dozen that I never use so I figured I'd bring it anyway."

Optimus sweatdropped. "I see…" Optimus picked up an Oran berry. "You eat these?"

"Yeah. You can eat them raw of course, but lots of humans use them in recipes. Like muffins!"

"Pi ka chu."

"Yeah, it does have a tartness when it's raw."

"It's nearly the size of your head."

Ash nodded. "That's normal. You got some that are bigger and some that are smaller."

"Mm-hm…"

"It also has some healing properties."

Optimus blinked. "What?"

"Yeah, oran berries help speed up recovery a bit. Pecha berries nullify poisons if you eat enough. Cheri berries help with paralysis. There's a bunch of others, but that's all I can think of right now."

"We'll see if we can gather some more," said Optimus. He took a bite of the berry.

Tart.

Meanwhile, Rhinox was examining the thunderstone very closely. "You called this a thunderstone?"

"Yeah, some Pokemon need it to evolve," said Ash.

Optimus made a note to ask about evolving later.

"This is giving off similar readings to energon," said Rhinox.

Optimus tensed. "Stable or unstable."

"Stable, but it's not a form I'm familiar with, and the energy it gives off is different from typical energon." Rhinox turned. "I'm going to examine it further."

"Energon is that stuff you guys eat, right?" asked Ash.

"Yes, it can be altered for taste reasons," explained Optimus. "Recently, it became possible to get upgrades that allow for consumption of organic substances, although it isn't as efficient." He turned on the radio and got a music station. "I wonder if we can reverse engineer this."

"I would've brought a phone, but I don't have one," said Ash.

"It's fine. They operate under the same concepts." Optimus frowned. "What are they saying?"

"Something to do with genies." Ash made a face. "I don't get it."

"I can't understand a word this singer's saying."

"Something about rubbing lamps."

"I think that's enough." This song was starting to sound obscene. But why couldn't he understand what the singer was saying when he could understand Ash?


	27. Poke Wars VI

"I brought some of my other friends," said Ash.

"Like Pikachu?" asked Blaze.

Ash nodded. "Mm hm." He pulled out five pokeballs. "Everyone come on out!"

Blaze watched as five more creatures appeared. "Wow…What are they?"

"That's Sceptile, that's Cyndaquil, that's Kingler, that's Noctowl, and that's Heracross."

Blaze studied the Pokemon in front of him. "Wow, there's all different types, huh?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, Pikachu is an electric type, Sceptile's a grass type, Cyndaquil's a fire type, Kingler's a water type, Noctowl's a dual normal/flying type, and Heracross is a bug type."

Blaze blinked. "Huh? What're you talking about?"

"Types."

"What're types?"

"What do you mean? Pokemon types are what let you know what sort of attacks a Pokemon can use and what they're strong and weak against."

Blaze's eyes widened in realization. "Oh…Ash if this is something unique to Pokemon, then none of us have ever heard of it before."

Ash blinked. "Oh, I didn't think of that. Uh…How to explain this?"

Blaze was busy studying the Pokemon. Pikachu didn't look electric, and Cyndaquil didn't look particularly firey either, but the others were a whole other story. Sceptile quite obviously had leaves growing out of his body. Heracross was a giant bug. Kingler was a giant crab, and crabs live in water. Noctowl was a bird, which of course could fly. "They're like elemental affinities?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, that's a really good way of putting it!"

"And you said something about moves and weaknesses?"

"Pokemon moves have types too," explained Ash. "And different types are more and less effective against other types. Like…" Ash's eyes wondered to Kingler, Cyndaquil, and Sceptile. "Cyndaquil is a fire type so his fire type attacks would be stronger than his other attacks. And his fire attacks would do even more damage on a grass type like Sceptile. They wouldn't do a lot of damage against a water type like Kingler though. Against say a flying type, it would do the normal amount of damage because that type isn't strong or weak against fire type attacks. Type advantage doesn't guarantee a victory though. Cyndaquil could try to fight Sceptile, but Sceptile's really strong and has good instinct so he'd win pretty easily, no offense Cyndaquil."

"Cynda!"

"That's…really interesting." Blaze grinned. "I think I've found what I'm going to write my thesis on!"

Ash blinked. "Thesis?"

Blaze nodded. "Yeah, I'm still a student. This was supposed to be my final exam, sort of. I go with the crew to the destination, help with the exploration process and studying life forms that we find, and then write a paper using the results and other papers used for research." Blaze grinned. "And this would be an awesome subject! No one on Cybertron has seen something like this before!"

Ash grinned back. "That is awesome!"

Blaze frowned. "Although I guess that means I won't be able to do prior research…"

"I could get you some papers from Prof. Oak," offered Ash. "He's studied Pokemon for practically his whole life."

"Yeah, that'd be great!"


	28. Metal Hearts IV

"What's this crowd for?" asked Orion.

"Sumdac Systems is unveiling a new automatic rail system," said a nearby woman.

"That doesn't seem like such a big deal," said Orion.

"Yeah, but the Autobots are supposed to be here, so everyone came hoping to see them. Looks like we got here a bit late though."

Orion raised an eyebrow and peered over the heads, thankful for his height. There was a platform a distance away with a few robots on it. One of them was Bumblebee.

Orion dropped down, wondering what an Autobot was. "Well, maybe I'll find her here." Given, he wasn't sure how he'd find Tamara in a crowd this big, but it was worth a try.

It was while Orion was working his way through the crowd that he was shot at. He instinctively threw up a shield as people started running and whirled around to look for the perpetrator. The shots had come from above so…

Yeah, it was next to impossible for it to not be that plane.

Orion activated his armor and ran after the jet. He stopped when he saw the jet transform into another robot.

Looked like Bumblebee wasn't the only robot that could transform.

Orion started to run again, holding his hand out and chanting.

He started as a violent impulse went through his body. Okay, that was a bad idea. He'd have to go with plan B. He slapped on his armor. "Thundaga!" A bolt of lightning shot from his Keyblade towards the robot.

It hit dead center and staggered the robot. When he turned around Orion hit him with another Thundaga in the face. And he got attacked from behind by the other robots.

Snarling, the jet bot flew upwards and out of their reach. Orion wished he had some way to go up after him.

Oh well, he'd just have to keep casting Thundaga. He called another bolt of lightning down on the bot.

The bot glared at Orion and fired a shot at him. Orion dodged.

This was going to take a while even with help. He could already tell.


	29. Metal Hearts V

Orion looked up at the robot and smiled. "Hello there. You're an…Autobot, was it? Can I help you?"

"I couldn't help but notice that you were wearing unusual clothing," explained Prowl.

Orion glanced at his armor. "Yeah, no one else around here seems to wear armor. I'm not sure why. It's kind of heavy, but once you get used to it, you hardly notice it."

"May I take a closer look?"

Orion nodded. "Sure." He held out his arm for Prowl.

Prowl peered more closely at the armor. It certainly looked like what the mysterious individual had been wearing before. "Was that you who was fighting Starscream?"

It took a moment for Orion to figure out who that was. "Oh, you mean the robot that turned into a jet? Yes."

Prowl stared at Orion. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you fight him?"

Orion gave Prowl a confused look. "He was attacking innocent people. Of course I was going to fight him."

Prowl stared at him. "I see…" He didn't seem to understand. Orion found that very sad. "What was that…lightning thing you did?"

"It was Thundaga. He was mechanical, so I thought it would be more effective than the other available magic," explained Orion.

"Magic," deadpanned Prowl.

Orion nodded. "Yeah, magic."


	30. Metal Hearts VI

Orion observed Sari, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead. "I can honestly say that I've never tried to teach someone magic before. I've been taught magic so I have an idea of what to do, but we should all expect to experience a few bumps along the way." His three students all nodded, obviously eager to learn. "First thing first, I need to see what your affinities are. Affinities will allow you to use certain elemental spells more easily than others. They can make certain spells more difficult though. Once I determine your affinity, I'll synch with you and perform a spell with you so you'll have some idea of what it feels like." He knelt down in front of Sari. "To synch, we need to hold hands."

"Okay!" Sari held out her hands. Orion chuckled and took them.

As Orion synched with her, he was surprised to see that she had an unusually high amount of mana for an untrained child of her age. He supposed some of it might be the key she wore, but even without it, she'd still have more mana than usual. That was strange given that there didn't seem to be anyone in this world who knew how to use magic properly. Deciding to worry about this later, he let their mana mix. "You have a strong affinity for white magic," announced Orion.

"What's that mean?"

"It means that you'll be best at magic that protects and heals," explained Orion.

Sari pouted. "Aw…I wanted to blow something up."

Orion chuckled. "You can still learn those sorts of spells. It just means white magic will always come more naturally and will be more powerful. You'll have trouble with offensive magic, but with enough effort you'll figure it out. Now, I think it would be best to start you off with Cure. It's simple, and you don't have to know any complicated anatomy because it's for minor injuries for the most part." Orion cast a Cure on a nearby plant, which wilted slightly less. "Did you feel it?"

Sari nodded. "Yeah."

Orion smiled. "Good. Try to cast one of your own." He stood. "Your turn Bumblebee." Bumblebee thrust his hands out towards Orion. Orion recoiled slightly. Bumblebee was too big for them to hold hands. "Maybe just your fingers…" Orion grabbed Bumblebee's pointer fingers.

Orion was relieved to find that it worked. Bumblebee's mana was small. He'd probably be able to use only one spell before resting until it was built up. "You have a thunder affinity." Orion had expected that given Bumblebee's weapons. Orion used a quick Thunder spell, hitting a nearby rock. "Pretty simple."

"Nice!"

Orion moved on to Bulkhead. The two stared awkwardly at one another. "I'm not sure how to do this," admitted Orion.

Eventually, they were both kneeling on the ground with Orion stretching so he could place his hands on Bulkhead's innermost digits. "Whoa."

"What?"

"Just surprised. You don't see many with an affinity for time space magic."

"Is that good?" asked Bulkhead.

"Well, yes and no," said Orion. "That's powerful magic, and you shouldn't have a hard time learning other types since they don't interact badly with most other spells, but I only know three spells so you'll have to learn on your own after you learn those three. Also, you'll have to learn a lot of physics stuff to learn how to make it work correctly. Generally, those with this type of affinity have an easier time with those so hopefully it won't be too troublesome for you. I know I always had trouble reading about that stuff." Which was why Orion only knew three spells of that type. "I'll use a Haste." And then everything started moving more slowly.

Bulkhead's optics widened. "Whoa…"

Orion stood up and stretched. "Yeah, that's why these spells are considered so dangerous. You can slow down your opponent so that they can't react quickly enough. Or speed up your own movements so that no one can move quickly enough to block you. Or both. Or you can stop others all together." He gave Bulkhead a look to let him know how serious he was. "This is something that can easily be abused. If you don't use it responsibly, it could have disastrous consequences. So I better not hear about you using it in such a way, understand?"

Bulkhead nodded. "Y-Yeah."

And then the world started moving normally. Otion turned so he was facing all three. "Chances are you'll be exhausted after casting your first spell. Don't try to push yourself or you'll end up very badly injured. Once you've figured out how to cast a spell, you can build up your mana by either continuing to cast spells on a regular basis or meditating, but I'll be observing you whichever you choose to make sure you don't completely drain yourselves."

"Isn't meditating that thing Prowl does?" asked Bulkhead.

Orion nodded. "Yeah, I thought he might be decent at magic, but he said he wasn't interested." Must be completely dedicated to being a ninja. Orion could respect that. "I'll be right here if you want to ask any questions. He got summoned his Keyblade and got into a stance. "I need to practice some myself."

"When do we learn to use one of those?" asked Bumblebee.

Orion tensed. "This…This is something you're better off never knowing how to use."

His melancholic tone stopped any protests from Sari and Bumblebee. They exchanged a look before going back to trying to use their spells.

Orion took a moment to be sure he could keep an eye on them before he started his katas. This looked so different, he needed to be at full strength before he started working on regaining his eidolans.


	31. Metal Hearts VII

"What're you doing?" asked Bumblebee.

Orion grunted as he dragged his Keyblade through the ground. "I practice summoning magic. My connection to my eidolans has been damaged. I have to perform the full summoning and bonding rite instead of just the summoning like I usually do." He lifted his Keyblade and studied the sigil. He frowned. "Only problem is that I'm not sure I've done this correctly."

"But you've done this before," commented Sari.

"My vision wasn't blurry last time I did this," countered Orion as he walked around the sigil. It looked like a decent circle.

"You're nearsighted?" asked Sari.

Orion shrugged. "I dunno. I could see perfectly fine before. When I woke up in the hospital, everything was blurry." He decided to leave out that he'd previously only had one eye.

"Maybe you should see an optometrist," commented Sari.

"What's an optometrist?" asked Bulkhead.

"An eye doctor."

"Why can't you have a regular doctor fix his eyes?" asked Bumblebee.

"You can't just fix eyes," said Orion. "Humans aren't machines. If there's a broken or damaged part, you can't always fix it or replace it. You just have to learn to get along without it."

"Yeah, plus you usually have doctors that specialize in certain areas 'cause the human body's so complicated," added Sari. "It's impossible for one doctor to know everything." She turned to Orion. "I'm kind of surprised you were able to beat up Starscream like that."

Orion shrugged. "I'm not blind. I can still see things pretty well. They're just…not distinct." The circle seemed okay. "I'm going to perform the summoning now. Might wanna step back." Probably not necessary since he set up a barrier, but you can never be too careful.

Orion cut the palms of his hands and slammed them into the center of the sigil. It immediately lit up. Then it floated up and the circles started spinning and rotating. Once it reached a certain speed, it started to condense on itself. As it shrunk, a form appeared in the center. As it became solid, the circles came to a stop. Then the creature suddenly spread its wings, shattering the spheres surrounding it.

The three kids stared. "What. Is. That?" asked Bumblebee.

"Valefor," answered Orion. The semi-mechanical bird was the same as he remembered. He took a step forward-

And was forced to retreat as a laser swept through where he'd just been standing. So either Valefor didn't recognize him or had decided he had to prove his worth again. Orion quickly used several defensive spells.

This would not be an easy battle.


	32. Jacks V

"Now, isn't this better than working at a bakery?" asked Miko.

"Nothing is better than bread," said Jack childishly.

The kids were in a government facility to hack into the satellite dishes there and turn them away from Cybertron.

It certainly hadn't been what they had planned for the day, but upon reaching the base that day, things had quickly gone south. The bots had gone to fight the Decepticons (In space as Miko made sure to remind everyone.) so that they couldn't throw dark energon at Cybertron and create an army of zombie bots that could be used to invade Earth. They had to use the satellite array to locate Cybertron so Optimus had sent the kids to the facility to try and hold them off.

That's what the Jacks got from the conversation anyway. The whole situation was kind of crazy in their opinions.

"Although this is pretty cool," admitted Jack.

Miko grinned and nodded. "What about you Raf?"

"It is kind of exciting," admitted Raf. He frowned. "But where is everyone?"

Jack suddenly tensed and started growling. Miko gave him a surprised look. "What's with you?"

"We smell blood."

"Blood? Why would there be…" Miko trailed off as she rounded the corner and saw a body sprawled out on the floor in a pool of blood.

The kids stared at the body for a moment before Miko about faced. "Let's go that way instead."

Nobody argued.

Thankfully, they found a computer lab that Raf could use a couple of minutes after that so they didn't need to worry about any more bodies.

"Okay, I got it now." Raf tapped a key. A moment later he frowned. "They moved back. So I'll just move them again." He started tapping at his laptop as he entered into a cyber battle.

"We found a fire ax," said Jack.

Miko groaned. "Only one?"

Jack nodded and held it out to her. "You can have it."

Miko shook her head. "Nah, I'm fine."

"Then we'll watch the door." Jack turned to face the lone door.

"So what do you think happened?" asked Miko.

Jack shrugged. "Decepticon? It'd make sense."

"They're way too big though."

"Good point."

The two kept staring at the doorway. Jack tensed and growled again. Remembering what happened last time, Miko turned towards the door and got into a fighting stance. "Whoever's out there, I know kung fu!"

Jack gave Miko a surprised look just as a metal tentacle shot through the door. Jack yelped and swung at it with the ax. The tentacle dodged easily before another tentacle swiped Jack into the wall. The first tentacle grabbed the ax.

"Oh come on!" shouted Miko. Not being stupid or suicidal, she jumped away from the tentacle with the ax when it shot by her. Raf scrambled out of the way as the tentacle brought the ax down on the laptop. Then the two tentacles calmly withdrew.

Miko ran after the tentacle. Jack ran after her to make sure she didn't get kidnapped or something. Raf ran after them so he wouldn't be alone in this place.

The tentacles pulled into a large bay where a dark purple robot with no face was crouching down. As the kids pulled to a stop, it turned to look at them.

Surprisingly, it didn't attack them. Miko took out her phone and took a picture with a snap. A similar sound came from the bot as a picture of the kids appeared on its…not face.

Jack wasn't sure why, but this guy scared all of them.

As if sensing some kind of signal, the bot transformed into some sort of plane and took off through the open roof.

"So…Now what?" asked Miko.

"I can't redirect the dishes again," said Raf. "I guess we should leave."


	33. Jacks VI

Miko and Raf did a double take when Jack climbed into Bumblebee's interior. "Is that a rabbit?" asked Miko.

Jack held up a brown rabbit. "This is Jerry, our pet bunny. She's nice and fluffy and warm and is really good at snuggling." Then they put Jerry on Miko's lap so they could buckle their seatbelt.

"I didn't know you had a pet," commented Miko. "I have two cats named Chi-Chi and Ding Dong."

Bumblebee made an odd choking sound.

"She's really cute," said Raf. He reached over to pet Jerry. "I wish I could have a pet, but one of my brothers and sisters has allergies."

"What about a hairless cat?" asked Jack. Miko giggled at the image.

Raf shook his head. "The allergy is caused by dead skin cells not hair."

"Oh…Well, we can share Jerry if you want."

"R-Really?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, we've always shared her so it isn't a problem."

"O-okay."

Bumblebee beeped a question. Raf opened his mouth to translate.

"Oh, were we supposed to ask before we brought Jerry?" asked Jack. "Sorry, we didn't realize."

Raf blinked. "You can understand Bumblebee too?"

Jack shook his head. "Jack and I can't understand Bumblebee, but Jack can so he translates when Bumblebee talks.

Miko and Raf stared at them. "I think you guys are cool and all, but that makes no fucking sense," said Miko.

"Yeah, we know," admitted Jack. They were confused about that too.

The rest of the trip to the base was relatively normal. The kids climbed out as soon as they entered, Jack holding Jerry again. Jack waved. "Hi Arcee!"

Arcee grunted. Jack was unaffected and climbed up to her level before plopping Jerry on Arcee's chassis, causing her to jerk up reflexively. "What the?"

"Bunny snuggles make everything better," said Jack matter of factly before petting Jerry. "Be good, kay?" And then they calmly went over the the 'kid area'.

By this time Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Raf were giving Jack the 'He's crazy' look again. Miko was giggling and taking pictures with her phone. Arcee looked like she had no idea what to make of the rabbit crouched on her chassis.

Optimus, realizing this was Jacks' way of trying to cheer Aree up, hid a small grin behind his servo. Seems the children would be adding a bit of excitement to their lives.


	34. Jacks VII

Jack blinked. He was floating in a massive room filled with giant robots. It took him a moment to realize they were Cybertronians.

Curious, Jack floated over to one and studied him. He was mostly green with a symbol that resembled a star on his shoulder. He was slightly smaller than Ratchet. His optics were blue, which made sense since he had an Autobot brand on him. He was talking to another bot that had the brand along with yellow optics, a white and blue paint job, and a regal air about him.

Jack took a moment to study the details before moving to another set. This was pretty cool as far as dreams went.

Jack was studying one bot that looked sort of like a samurai when a black and white bot with doorwings and…what were they called? Not glasses. He was staring at Jack. Jack looked behind him. Nothing of interest. Jack stared at the bot. He floated up and moved around. The bot tracked him and made the same odd clicking sounds all the Cybertronians were making.

"I can't understand you," said Jack. "Do you know English?" The bot was frowning so Jack figured that was a 'no'. He floated back a bit to get a look at another interesting looking bot, but kept an eye on the doorwinged mech as well. The mech said something to the samurai bot while gesturing towards Jack. The samurai bot looked at him like he was crazy before going back to his energon.

Jack gave the doorwinged mech an apologetic look. "Sorry man."

The doorwinged mech frowned but didn't move. Maybe he wanted to keep an eye on Jack? Oh well, Jack didn't mind. Neither of them could do anything. Besides, he was more interested in seeing as many Autobots as he could.


	35. Jacks VIII

"Wow, you're a pretty good drawer," commented Miko.

She and Jack were drawing pictures of bots since things were kind of slow. Jack nodded. "We all like drawing," he said. "I tend to take a while. Jack and Jack are faster."

"Yeah, but your drawings are really detailed," said Miko. She grinned. "We could totally make a manga!"

Jack giggled. "Manga sounds fun." Jack frowned in thought. "But you need a good story."

"We can write about these guys," suggested Miko, nodding towards the bots.

"Don't-Don't you think we could get in trouble for that?" asked Jack.

Miko paused. "Well, we can make different characters. Like historical fiction stuff from when they were still on Cybertron. That make sense?"

"A bit, but we wouldn't want to hurt their feelings," said Jack. Jack stretched. "We don't want to profit from their tragedy."

Miko winced. "Okay, you have a point there. Maybe we can come up with something else. It's definitely gotta be shounen though. Actiony."

"Monsters," said Jack.

"Lots of manga have monsters," said Miko. "It needs something more."

"What're you doing?" asked Bulkhead.

"Just drawing stuff." Miko showed him a sketch of Optimus fighting Megatron. "You should see Jack's." She held up a random drawing. "Haven't seen a bot like this before, but he sure looks cool."

Bulkhead's optics widened. "Whirl?"

"Huh?"

"That's Whirl. He's a Wrecker."

Miko stared at the picture in surprise. "Wow, what're the chances of that?"

"That happens sometimes," commented Jack.

Bulkhead gave Jack a suspicious look. "What does?"

"Jack draws something and it ends up being real."

Miko gave him a surprised look. "Really?" She picked up several other pictures. "What about these guys?"

Bulkhead stared. "That's Hound and Mirage. And that's Perceptor. And Hoist." He narrowed his optics. "How do you know what they look like?"

"I saw them in a dream," said Jack.

"You're joking," deadpanned Bulkhead.

"No, that happens a lot," answered Jack.

"It does?" asked Miko.

Jack paused. "Well, usually it's just little stuff like watching a raccoon dig through garbage. Or what tomorrow's dinner is gonna be. Nothing interesting."

"You kidding? That's amazing!" said Miko. "Why didn't you guys mention that before?"

Jack blinked. "Uh, it didn't seem important." True, it happened on a fairly regular basis, but…what did it matter? The only time he saw something odd besides this was when they had those nightmares about-

Nope. Not thinking about that.

Miko grinned. "I bet you see some really interesting stuff now."


	36. Jacks IX

"You're working on a science project?" asked Ratchet.

"Yeah, we do this every year," explained Raf. "It's a big part of our science grade."

"Jack came up with our project this year," said Jack.

"…You guys need nicknames," declared Miko. "Refering to all you guys as Jack is getting confusing."

"We don't think it's confusing."

"It would be if you were separate people!"

"…Okay, you have a point," admitted Jack. "Nickname away."

"And what are your projects?" asked Ratchet.

"I'm making a volcano," said Raf.

"I'm doing a solar system model," said Miko.

"Yeast." Everyone gave Jack a weird look. "Yeast is important!"

"And what are you using to construct your projects?" asked Ratchet.

"Yeast, flour, water, milk, eggs, sugar…" listed Jack.

"Mostly paper mache and paint," said Miko as she slapped some wet paper onto a sphere.

"And some vinegar and baking soda," added Raf. "Plus some dye."

Ratchet studied Miko and Raf's projects. The materials were…shoddy. What sort of science projects were these? "I think they could be improved."


	37. Jacks X

The kids all arrived and were surprised to see Ratchet watching them. "Well, how did o-your projects go?"

"We threw up," groaned Jack. "Too much bread…" They made a gagging sound and covered their mouth. "We think we need to lie down." They stumbled away to the living area.

"Mine went about as well," muttered Miko. "I had to adlib and say Cybertron was a theoretical undiscovered planet. I don't think the teacher believed me."

"At least your project didn't blow a hole through the roof," said Raf. "The school's gonna be closed for a week, and I'm gonna be in so much trouble with Mama when I get home!"

Ratchet looked noticeably put off by the news. "Well, on Cybertron, you would've received the highest honors," he said. Then he went back to his console while muttering under his breath. The rest of the Cybertronians looked amused by the whole thing.


	38. The One Shattered Glass Piece I Wrote

It was a perfectly normal day on the Ark. Then the alarms went off. Nothing too odd there.

_"__Sir, we have detected a very severe dimensional anomaly,"_ commed Perceptor.

Okay, now Optimus was concerned. _"Send us the coordinates immediately. We cannot afford to procrastinate on this matter."_

The Autobots immediately moved out. The source of the odd signal turned out to be in Australia. The Decepticons arrived at practically the same time. "Megatron, is this your doing?" demanded Optimus.

Megatron smirked. "We may not have caused this anomaly, but we plan on making use of it!"

Both sides got ready to fight…and then the anomaly suddenly blew up.

Rather than causing some sort of catastrophe, it just widened before suddenly spitting out several mechs and then collapsing on itself. Several mechs on both sides suddenly collapsed as well.

Ratchet immediately started examining Jazz. "What just happened?"

"The anomaly disappeared," said Perceptor. "I guess it just temporarily tore a hole in time and space."

"Then who're these guys?" asked Ironhide.

The mechs did look familiar, even if their pain jobs were a bit weird. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," groaned Cliffjumper.

That was when the lone seeker in the group caught sight of Megatron. "Megatron!" He ran over and enveloped the Decepticon leader in a hug. "You're alive!" The scene was made even stranger by the fact the stranger spoke with Starscream's voice. Everyone was shocked into inaction. Prowl nearly glitched.

The one bot not affected was Cliffjumper. "Starscream! That's not your Megatron! Get away!" Of course that just caused more confusion.

Megatron then broke out of the mystery seeker's grip and kneed him in the chassis. A scarred mech that looked oddly like Sideswipe cursed, ran over to the beat down, and tackled Megatron. At that point, the battle finally started.

Usually, Cliffjumper would happily jump in, but he needed to hold back the urge for the moment. Instead, he made his way to the remaining mystery mechs, who looked like they were getting ready to start fighting as well. "Hey!"

That caught their attention. "Oh, the red Cliffjumper," muttered what looked like a recolored Jazz.

"Yeah, this is my universe, which means Autobots are good, Decepticons are bad, and all that stuff! And what are you doing here anyway?!" shouted Cliffjumper.

"Oh no…That means that we…" The Shockwave doppelganger was cut off when a grinning Sunstreaker shot at him. Cliffjumper quickly shot his glass gas at him.

"Okay, survive now, worry later," said a white Soundwave duplicate. He picked up Shockwave and a mech that looked really similar to Mixmaster. "You got any medics?"

"Will Ratchet or First Aid work?" asked Cliffjumper as he dodged some laser fire. The white mech made a face. "Hoist is back at base!"

"This is gonna take some getting used to," muttered the other mech as he tried to make his way over to the Autobot side. Once Cliffjumper was certain they were out of range, he ran back into the thick of things and over to Optimus.

"Optimus, these guys are from an alternate dimension!" shouted Cliffjumper.

"Can't say I didn't expect that," admitted Optimus.

"But the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good in that dimension!"

Optimus paused. "…What?"

"Remember when I disappeared for a couple of months in that accident? I got blown into their dimension! That mech that hugged Megatron is their Starscream!"

"You're sure?"

"They recognized me! And that's not something you forget!"

"So the ones that look like our friends are potential enemies, and the ones that look like our enemies are potential allies?"

"Yes!" Cliffjumper paused. "Except for Sideswipe. He defected to the Decepticons in that universe. He's the one that tackled Megatron."

Optimus peered over his cover. "It looks like most of the ones that could be considered enemies are standing with the Decepticons at the moment."

"Scrap! They must have figured out the difference when Megatron started beating up Starscream!"

"I take it that's unusual for them?"

"The other Megatron's…nice, understanding, all that stuff. I thought it was kind of creepy, but it wasn't bad. He'd never hurt Starscream. But for some reason every Autobot considers it funny to beat Starscream to within an inch of his life."

At that point, Sir Soundwave had reached Ratchet. "Yo. You a medic?"

Ratchet looked up from where he was still trying to figure out why Jazz had collapsed, even though Jazz insisted that he was perfectly fine and had just felt dizzy for a moment. Ratchet's optics went to their sigils. "Purple Autobot symbols?"

"No worries. We're not gonna try anything." He placed Shockwave and Mixmaster on the ground. Then he ran off before Ratchet could ask any questions.

"Did that seem strange to you?" asked Jazz.

"Extremely," muttered Ratchet as he examined the Shockwave doppelganger. No important parts had been hit, but an important energon line had been damaged that needed to be immediately patched. He wasn't sure what was wrong with the other one. He didn't seem to have been harmed physically.

Back on the other side, Sideswipe finally managed to get Starscream away from Megatron when Optimus ran over. Megatron decided that he'd rather fight Optimus than beat up the seemingly random seeker. Sideswipe picked up the unconscious Starscream and ran for the Autobot side, completely ignoring the gawking Starscream who'd been staring the whole time.

As Sideswipe was rushing to the other side, he ran into Sideswipe. Both recoiled a bit. Sideswipe recalled how the two Cliffjumpers had immediately realized who the other was as soon as they saw each other, even though one had just been brought back from the dead and wouldn't have had any way of knowing what was going on. Apparently, this was normal for dimensional counterparts.

"You're-"

"I'll explain later. Just direct me to the nearest medic!" demanded Sideswipe.

Sideswipe pointed towards Ratchet. Sideswipe tensed up, remembering his experience with the Ratchet back in his dimension. Of course, if it was the opposite Ratchet, this Ratchet was likely concerned with keeping his patients alive. Sideswipe ran over to Ratchet and noticed that he was treating Shockwave. He must have been shot at some point. "Hey, you done yet?"

Ratchet looked up with an annoyed look on his face that nearly had Sideswipe reaching for his blaster. As soon as Ratchet saw Starscream though, his expression changed to one of concern. "Put him on the ground."

As soon as Starscream was on the ground, Ratchet was opening him up and patching all sorts of malfunctioning equipment. Sideswipe was certain that if this universe was anything like Cliffjumper had described that Starscream was in good hands, but…It was Ratchet. Sideswipe just couldn't equate him with a caring medic.

Sideswipe growled. No wonder Cliffjumper had seemed to be in a state of confusion half the time he was in their universe.

And where was Soundwave?! He should've been keeping an optic on them! Sideswipe turned to look for the ninja and nearly ran into Sideswipe. "Do you mind?!"

Sideswipe didn't seem to hear. "You're me."

"Yes, I'm you, and you're me. I'm sure we can have an in-depth discussion about the ramifications once I've made sure Soundwave hasn't done something stupid that'll get him killed!"

That took Sideswipe back enough that Sideswipe could step around him. He still couldn't find Soundwave. Darn ninja.

Then Soundwave popped out of nowhere, threw a bomb at a seeker, and ran back over to the Autobot side while jauntily waving at any Decepticon that happened to see him.

No one could see it, but the other Soundwave was freaking out at his counterpart's behavior.

Sideswipe rolled his optics. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes it was. Did you see the other Soundwave?"

Sideswipe groaned. "Really?"

"Decepticons, retreat!" ordered Megatron. The Decepticons started flying away…and it looked like the bad Autobots decided to follow after them.

Optimus scratched the back of his helm. Well, that had been…odd. He turned to look at the rest of the group that had come out. Three of them were out of commission. He could place who their counterparts were. "Greet-" The two suddenly moved into positions that suggested they would attack if Optimus got any closer. Optimus abruptly froze.

Right, opposites. _"Cliffjumper, what exactly was my counterpart like?"_

_"__You don't wanna know."_

Right. Optimus took a few steps back. This was something they were going to have to handle very delicately. The retreat didn't seem to help.

"Hey, opposites, right," Cliffjumper reminded their visitors.

That made them look at Ratchet. Ratchet decided to ignore this. He had experienced all sorts of disagreeable patients. This wasn't anywhere near the worst reaction he'd ever had. "I need to get him to the proper facilities or he will die. Do you understand?"

Soundwave glanced back at Starscream. Well, it did seem pretty bad. Sideswipe was less trusting and looked like he would attack if anyone tried anything.

"Cliffjumper, will you try talking to them?" asked Optimus.

Cliffjumper walked over. "Uh, what exactly happened?"

"Wheeljack made our universe implode," growled Sideswipe.

Everyone immediately looked at Wheeljack. He held up his hands. "I swear I haven't blown anything up all week!"

"I think he means the insane Wheeljack," said Cliffjumper.

Everyone tried to imagine Wheeljack crazy enough to be considered insane. They collectively shuddered.

"Anyway, I think that means ya gotta come with us if you wanna survive," said Cliffjumper.

"I'll go with 'em," said Soundwave.

Sideswipe gave him a look. Then he looked at Starscream, who was still looking like scrap. "Fine. We'll take a chance."

Ratchet kept working on Starscream the whole way back. First Aid checked over Shockwave, who was nicely repaired, and Mixmaster who seemed okay. When First Aid tried to move away, Mixmaster latched on and started whimpering. "He's a Constructicon, right?" asked First Aid.

"Yeah."

"Where's the rest of his gestalt?"

Sideswipe gave First Aid a look. "Where do you think?"

"Oh…" That made sense. First Aid had kind of been hoping there were more survivors of this opposite universe. "Poor guy…" Unlike twin or spark bonds, it's possible to survive a broken gestalt bond, but when all the other members are dead, it can be traumatizing. Treatment included keeping them close to another available gestalt since it would make it feel like they were near their gestalt somewhat. It made the pain somewhat muted so that they could get used to it in steps.

"Didn't one of the Constructicons decide to join the Autobots at the beginning of the war?" asked Jazz. "Maybe we should call him…"

"Right, I'll make a call when we get back," said Optimus. "I'm sure Hauler would be happy to help."

Sideswipe nodded. Then he frowned when he realized that Sideswipe was staring at him. "Stop staring before I shoot you."

Cliffjumper facepalmed. "This is gonna be weird…"

Upon reaching the Ark, Ratchet transported Starscream, Shockwave, and Mixmaster to the medical bay. Sideswipe and Soundwave…They weren't really free to go wherever they pleased, but they couldn't be put in the brig either.

Eventually the Autobots settled for putting them in the rec room with a few other bots to make sure they didn't try anything. "Now I know how Cliffjumper felt," commented Soundwave. "No wonder he was so jumpy. I wonder how the others are doing…"

Once Megatron had realized they had some extra tag-a-longs, he'd thrown them into the brig until he could ransom them or integrate them into his army. He wasn't sure which was appropriate quite yet.

Given the death threats Sunstreaker was shouting, he would fit in just fine with the Decepticons.

"Why did it have to be an organic planet," muttered Hound.

"I didn't make the device, the Dinobots did," groused Mirage.

"We said it might not work," said Sludge as he tapped at his cell. "It was new territory, and we didn't know how to test it. Although it probably is why we didn't go with our universe so it must have been a step in the right direction." Sludge paused. "By the way, how're you doing First Aid?" First Aid made an odd groaning sound. "Stay alive long enough, and I'm sure the Constructicons will be sure to give you a chance."

"Will you shut your damn fool mouth!" shouted Jazz. "I've had it up to here with your shitty threats!"

"You want shitty? I'll give you shitty!"

Back at the Autobot base:

"Obviously, this is a very strange situation we find ourselves in," said Optimus.

"No kidding! I saw me with that group that popped up," said Jazz. "Talk about freaky."

"At least your counterpart's not a zombie," muttered Cliffjumper. He'd been included in the emergency meeting due to his familiarity with the subject.

"Your counterpart's a zombie?" asked Wheeljack.

"Well, he was dead when I first ended up there and came back to life later."

"Huh, how'd that happen?"

"Focus," said Prowl. "We need to discuss this situation and figure out what to do exactly."

"Fortunately, I saved the information Cliffjumper told us when we brought him back from their dimension," said Perceptor.

"But all I told you was that Autobots were bad, and Decepticons were good," said Cliffjumper. After that, it'd been obvious that no one believed him so he hadn't bothered to go into any more detail.

"…We'll add on."

Optimus coughed. "Yes, we owe you apology for not listening to you that time. For now though, we need to know everything you know about our guests."

"They got embers instead of sparks. I don't know what the difference is except that it has something to do with reversed polarity."

"Is there some sort of bond between counterparts?" asked Jazz.

"Yeah, if they're in the same universe, they recognize each other and can sort of tell where the other is. No emotions or talking though, thank Primus." Cliffjumper did not want zombie Cliffjumper in his head ever.

Ratchet frowned. "Are you experiencing something similar to that?"

Jazz frowned and nodded. "Yeah, you get a little dizzy when the bond forms?" Cliffjumper nodded. "And I know that guy was me."

"Sounds about right," said Cliffjumper.

"If that's the case then we have Jazz, Hound, Mirage, Sunstreaker, First Aid, and Sludge's counterparts with the Decepticons," noted Ratchet.

"And Sideswipe," interjected Cliffjumper.

"He's here though."

"Am I the only one worried about what it means that Sideswipe's counterpart defected to the Decepticons?" asked Red Alert.

"That's been bothering me too," admitted Cliffjumper.

"Well, why don't you tell us about him?" suggested Optimus.

"He had a friend that wanted to leave the Autobots, but Optimus found out and killed him. So Sideswipe decided he'd had enough and was gonna leave. But Optimus found out and tried to kill him. Sideswipe barely managed to survive and drag himself to Decepticon territory, where someone found him and the Constructicons repaired him except for that scar going through the Autobot sigil. Then he joined the Decepticons so he could have revenge, but he didn't seem to be going out of the way to do the avenging thing. He's violent, but he's also serious and down to Earth. He usually listens to authority…When he doesn't he usually has a good reason."

"Maybe we should have Rung do a psych evaluation," suggested Wheeljack.

"Bad idea. The other Rung was a psychopath and liked reprogramming bots," said Cliffjumper.

"Smokescreen?"

"Scam artist to the extreme."

"I think we should give them some time to get used to things before we introduce them to bots they would normally consider extremely dangerous to their physical and mental health," noted Optimus. "How long do you suppose it would take?"

"A while."

Optimus wished Cliffjumper would try to go into more detail. "Is there anyone they would be comfortable around?"

"Me. Maybe Sideswipe. Definitely not Sunstreaker." Cliffjumper thought a moment. "Maybe the Dinobots but I'm not sure they'd actually be safe around them. Starscream would probably be comfortable around Skyfire, but the others wouldn't."

"We're getting off subject," said Red Alert. "What about the others?"

"Sir Soundwave-"

"Sir?"

"He won't answer if you don't use sir, and it helps keep him apart from Soundwave," explained Cliffjumper. "Anyway, he's a ninja, and he's a pretty decent ninja except for the fact that he's talkative and it sometimes causes him to break cover."

"How is he as a communications officer?" asked Prowl.

"He's not allowed anywhere near sensitive information."

"What? Why?"

"Ravage…" Cliffjumper tried to think of a way to explain this. "Ravage is a LOLcat."

Jazz laughed. "Really?"

"Yes. He had a facebook page that he was always updating with what he did, he blabs about everything he knows, he talks ridiculously, and he has a weird fascination with Steeljaw so if he knows something the Autobots are going to know about it."

"Good thing they don't have Steeljaw," muttered Ironhide.

"What about his other cassettes?" asked Prowl.

"Rumble and Frenzy are very well-behaved and polite and will happily help you out if you ask for it. Laserbeak's still a decent spy, but is female for some reason and a lot nicer. Ratbat's a cute kid instead of a corrupt politician that got reformatted into a cassette by Soundwave."

"Does he have them?"

Cliffjumper shrugged. "Dunno. He'd probably be more upset if he didn't."

"And Starscream?"

"He got frozen in ice instead of Skyfire. He's friendly, loyal, smart, self-sacrificing, a hard worker…".

"Sounds like the complete opposite of Starscream," said Ironhide.

"Then what's Skyfire like?" asked Jazz.

"Back-stabbing, only cares about himself, lies, keeps trying to kidnap Starscream."

"It sounds like they switched places," commented Wheeljack.

"Hm…Do you think if Starscream had been the one frozen in this universe that it would be the case here as well?" asked Perceptor.

"Good question."

"What about Shockwave?" asked Optimus.

"You know how Shockwave was like before his emotions were removed? He pretty much acts like that, and everyone says he's always been like that. Can't fight worth a damn though."

Optimus sighed. "I see…He's still a well meaning scientist and politician?"

"Yeah, pretty good one too."

"I believe we should keep Shockwave away from Shockwave," noted Optimus. This was unanimously supported by everyone else. "And next is Mixmaster, I believe?"

"The Constructicons were medics and engineers, same as here. They weren't gonna experiment on anything though… More interested in the aftercare. Not sure how he's gonna do without the rest of 'em."

"He still won't let go of First Aid," said Ratchet. "He needs to be around another gestalt."

"Will First Aid work?" asked Optimus. "I suspect he won't be comfortable around the other gestalt members."

"It will do for now, but I'd like to bring in Hauler to help him out," said Ratchet.

Optimus nodded. "Now, about the Autobots that went with the Decepticons."

"What's my counterpart like?" interrupted Jazz.

"He's Mr. T and he's afraid of flying."

"So, he's like the evil A-Team?"

"And he might have a twin, but he seemed okay so I guess not." That had always been pretty unclear.

"First Aid was pretty adamant that he saw himself on the other side," said Ratchet.

"Oh, yeah. He will treat bots, but he might experiment on them if they aren't conscious or harvest their parts." Cliffjumper decided not to say that he'd picked it up from evil Ratchet. "Still part of a gestalt though so he's probably not gonna be functional for a while.

"I noticed Hound and Mirage on the other side," said Prowl. "Will they be a problem?"

"Hound's organophobic. Mirage is an ex-gladiator."

Prowl did his very best not to glitch. "Sunstreaker."

"Sadistic psychopath that likes ripping out bots' sparks and then ripping their bodies apart for sculptures. And he might be a cannibal, but Sideswipe won't talk about it."

"Sludge?"

"Built by Wheeljack. Decent fighter. Really smart. Like Perceptor smart. Could probably reason with him if ya needed to."

Prowl stared at his notes. "This is the most confusing situation I've ever been in."

Jazz chuckled. "At least other Prowl isn't here."

"He's completely crazy and keeps getting cloned," said Cliffjumper.

Prowl would've glitched if he hadn't already expected that. Well, the crazy part at least. The cloning bit wasn't. "I see…"

Optimus cleared his throat. "Will it be safe to have them around humans?"

Cliffjumper. "Sure, they like humans. Their Witwickies are bank robbers though, so…"

"Does that include Carly?"

"Yeah."

"Chip?"

"Hacker and identity thief."

"Astoria?"

"Serial killer."

"Raoul?"

"Office worker." Well at least one of them was fairly normal.

"We'll explain to both parties. Maybe see who their allies were," said Optimus. If said allies were somehow not criminals on this side maybe they could be introduced.


	39. Does Anyone Else See the Similarities?

Ash blinked. "Huh? Wha…?" His head hurt, and his body felt kind of numb. It also felt like something was clammering around at the back of his mind, which felt extremely uncomfortable. He sat up with a groan.

Bleh. Why did he feel so weird? What had he been doing?

Oh right. Helping Prof. Oak with some sort of project while visiting Pallet Town. He'd been sticking around so Charizard could come visit. He probably got attacked or something. He can usually stay conscious when that happens, but sometimes he gets hit hard enough to get knocked out.

He finally opened his eyes. He blinked. Why were there robots staring at him?

"Wheeljack, what did you do?"

"I have no idea! It shouldn't have had any sort of teleporting effect."

Something about this was bothering Ash but he couldn't put his finger on it. Ash looked down at himself and his eyes widened.

His body was metal, all white and blue and black. He yelped and shot back before abruptly climbing to his feet. Yep, this body was moving the way he wanted it to. "Why am I a robot?"

"Were you not a robot before?" asked the robot with the flashing head things.

"No!" And now that Ash thought about it… "Where am I?" He had no idea where he was, but it didn't look like Pallet Town or Prof. Oak's lab. Speaking of which… "Where are my Pokemon?"

"Pokemon?"

"Pikachu?! Noctowl?! Bulbasaur?! Sceptile?! Anyone?!"

Ash's chest abruptly folded open. Now that was just creepy. Something shot out that looked like a yellow cassette tape before it twisted into a familiar shape. "Pika-pi!"

Ash let out a sigh of relief as Pikachu landed on his head. "What a relief. Hey, wait. Does that mean-" Several other cassettes shot out of Ash's chest as he let out a surprised sound.

The other robots apparently took this as a signal to suddenly start fighting. Except for a couple of them who continued staring at Ash for a moment. Then they exchanged glares with each other before racing for him.

Ash was currently feeling very confused. "How did you guys get so small?" Seriously, they fit in the palms of his hands now. "Hold still so I can figure out who's here." Let's see…Charizard (When did he get here?), Bayleef, Heracross, Noctowl, Donphan, Swellow, Sceptile, Torkoal, Staraptor, Torterra, Infernape, Buizel, and Gliscor.

And that was when someone grabbed his arm. Ash immediately checked to see who did that. It was a big mostly blue and white robot with no mouth and…red sunglasses? Huh?

Someone grabbed his other arm. Ash quickly turned his head again and saw a mostly red and yellow bot that had a visible face thankfully.

The two robots glared at each other. Or, at least the red and yellow one did. Ash couldn't really tell with the other one.

Ash noticed both were a head taller than him. That wasn't too big…

"Let go of him."

"Negative."

"The Autobots are better equipped to take care of a youngling."

"Soundwave: Has experience with multiple cassettes."

"Like he'd survive the Constructicons!"

"Resemblance would likely cause distrust."

"He has yellow optics! That means neutral!"

"Incorrect. Thrust also has yellow optics."

"So does Tracks!"

And that was when the Pokemon got tired of the two guys playing tug-of-war with their trainer and started shooting fire, leaves, ice, and electricity at them. Ash stumbled away from them as they let go. Okay, what was he supposed to do now? He appeared to be stuck between a bunch of fighting robots. He'd think it was a movie if it weren't for the fact that he was done up like a robot as well. Plus, he still had all those not voices at the back of his head. Some wanted to stay and fight. Others wanted to retreat until they understood what was going on.

Were those his Pokemon?

Yep, it was them. When did that happen? And how?

Okay, skip the how. It was probably how he'd ended up here and they were all robots. For now they needed to figure out what to do.

Ash tried moving away, but moving felt very strange. He stumbled and fell. Looks like they'd have to stay and fight.

"Decepticons, retreat!" shouted a gravelly voice. Roughly half the robots present started running away. The blue mech looked at Ash. Ash couldn't see his expression, but he seemed…longing. Then he flew off with the rest of that half. The other seemed ecstatic.

"Yes!" He turned to Ash with a look on his face that reminded Ash of Dawn when she was fawning over fancy clothes. "I didn't think there were any cassette carrier younglings left!"

"He said he was a human," said the robot with the flashing head things.

The other bot scoffed. "Does that look human to you?"

"No, but there was that time with Autobot X-"

The other bot waved him off. "That was a one time thing, and I didn't see any of that equipment around."

"Autobots, move out!"

"Oh, we should get going. What're your names anyway?" asked the bot. "Mine's Blaster."

"I'm Ash, and this is Pikachu, Charizard, Buizel, Bayleef-"

"We're gonna get left behind at this rate," interrupted the bot with the flashy head things.


	40. I don't think that's the Shadow Zone

"Um…Where are we?" asked Miko. There were on a floating piece of rock in an endless green sky with an endless amount of doors.

"I guess we got thrown halfway across the universe," deadpanned Jack. "Which Ratchet warned us about. And you ignored him!"

"Is that a terrorcon?" asked Raf.

Everyone looked down towards another floating rock where a confused looking zombie was walking in a circle, like it wasn't sure where it was supposed to go.

"Who dares desecrate my grave?!"

The three kids jumped and spun to see the speaker…Who appeared to be the zombie only green and white…and very angry.

Fortunately, Miko reacted in an unusually appropriate way. "Starscream."

"He shall pay for this slight against me!" The bot transformed and flew off.

"Did anyone else think that was weird?" asked Miko.

"The fact that we just saw someone identical to the zombie claim that was his grave?" asked Jack. "If so, yes, it was very weird and worrying."

Raf stared after the bot. "Did anyone else notice he was see through?"

Awkward silence.

"Well, we're screwed," declared Miko.


	41. I don't think that's the Shadow Zone II

"Man that place we ended up was so weird," said Miko. "All floating doors and rocks and green and see through people."

"I can only hope this has finally taught you a lesson," said Optimus. "Actions have consequences. These consequences can be very severe in the case of war."

Miko nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, yeah." She headed for the couch and jumped so that she'd land across it. Instead she landed on the floor. "Oof!" Miko sat up rubbing her back and glared at the couch, which she'd somehow landed behind. "Ow…"

"Miko? How did you do that?" asked Bulkhead. He was likely to be unusually protective of her for the next few days.

"No idea." Miko climbed over the back of the couch to lay on the cushions. "Much better."

"You're absolutely sure you're okay?" asked Arcee.

Jack nodded. "I feel fine. Nothing hurt us, and I figure if there was something in the air, we'd be feeling it by now."

For a brief moment Jack seemed to go transparent. Arcee blinked in surprise and Jack was back to normal. "Maybe we should turn in for the day…"

"No arguments here."

"It was so weird…" Raf typed into his computer as he tried to find something that resembled what the kids had seen. "I guess that if it was a different dimension the laws are different, but still…" He frowned. "I don't even know where to look." His computer suddenly shocked his hands. He recoiled away from it. "Ow!"

Bumblebee beeped in concern.

"I'm fine," Raf reassured him. He shook his hand. "Must be static." He closed his computer. "Let's go home. It's about curfew anyway."


	42. I don't think that's the Shadow Zone III

"So, how long *THUMP* has this been *THUMP* going on?" asked Megatron.

"About half an hour *THUMP* give or take," answered Knockout.

The two watched as Starscream was slammed into the wall again and again. "Aren't you going to do something?!"

"And what do you suggest when we don't know the cause?" asked Megatron.

"I don't know! Just make it stop!"

"Maybe we could use pillows," joked Knockout.

Megatron gave Knockout a withering look before turning back to watch the strange spectacle. "Do we need Starscream for anything?"

"Well, probably not."

Megatron started walking away. "Then I see no reason not to wait this out."

Knockout blinked before shrugging. "You're the boss." He went back to the lab.

"Wait!" Starscream winced as he was slammed into the wall particularly hard. "You can't just leave me here!"

They could and they did.


	43. I don't think that's the Shadow Zone IV

_And now a public service announcement._

"This isn't a public service announcement," said KHGiggle. "Well, it is an announcement, but it's just about one of my stories. Alphabeat alerted me that a lot of Blurr's speech was missing from Chapter 14, A Bridge Too Far, of Butterflies: Season 2.

"So I went to check, and she was right. A lot of stuff was missing! I generally don't bother to preview my chapters simply because I proofread them so many times, and because of that I completely missed this problem.

"By the way, I just want to thank Alphabeat for alerting me. In return I am willing to write a one-shot on the subject of your choosing."

"What if she chooses something you're not willing to write about?" interjected Vector Prime.

"Hey, I'm willing to try anything once...except sex scenes...for reasons we won't be getting into since that would be getting off subject, but from what I've seen of Alphabeat's works, I don't think Alphabeat will ask me for anything I'll be unable to stand. Might take me a while to write if I have to do research, but that's it.

"And I managed to figure out how to fix the problem, so if you've read that chapter, please go read it again. I'm sure it'll make a lot more sense now...At least as much sense as someone who talks as fast as Blurr can."

_And now we present the feature presentation._

Raf was the first to figure out something was wrong.

Raf had been going out to meet the others when he and Vince saw each other. Raf had instantly dashed away, not wanting to have to deal with the older boy's usual antics. This didn't usually work so well. Vince was bigger so he could catch up pretty easily.

Raf darted into an alcove, wishing he was invisible…again.

As Vince walked into view, he looked around before his gaze settled of Raf.

Raf tensed.

Vince made an annoyed sound before moving on.

Raf blinked. That had been weird. Had Vince changed his mind? Raf walked out of the alcove before stopping. Something was off. He looked around, but nothing seemed different from usually. He nervously pushed his glasses up.

He couldn't see his hand.

Everything else he could see just fine, but his hand was nowhere to be seen. Raf stared in shock before looking down. He couldn't see the rest of his body either. He ran his hands up and down. His body was still there. He could feel it. It felt normal. He just couldn't see it.

Raf immediately started panicking and hyperventilating. This was not normal! Not even close! What was wrong with his body?!

And suddenly he was visible again.

Raf stared at his hands slowly closed and opened them.

And then he was running out of the school. "Bumblebee!"


End file.
